7th CPC Night Duty Allowance : Removal of ceiling for entitlement – IRTSA writes to the Chairman, Railway Board
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INDIAN RAILWAYS TECHNICAL SUPERVISORS ASSOCIATION |
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M. Shanmugam, |
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Harchandan Singh, |
No: IRTSA/CHQ/Memo.2020-12
Date:30.10.2020
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Railway Board
New Delhi
Sub: Payment of Night Duty Allowance (NDA) pursuant to the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission. — Appeal for removal of ceiling for entitlement of NDA.
Ref: 1) Railway Board letter No.E(P&A)II-2017/HW-1 (RBE No.83/2020) dated 29.08.2020.
2) DoPT O.M. No.12012/4/86-Esit.(Allowances) dated 04.10.1989, Sub: Weightage for night duty — Recommendations of the IVth Pay Commission – regarding
Government’s decision thereon. (Copy enclosed as Annexure)
1) We would like to bring to your kind notice on ceiling of basic pay Rs. 43,600/- per month for entitlement of Night Duty Allowance as per Railway Board letter cited in reference -1. NDA is available to all Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ employees in Railways for past many decades.
2) Payment of Night Duty Allowance was dealt extensively by Justice NM Miabhoy Tribunal, which is also Known as Railway Labour Tribunal, 1969 and the present dispensation is based on the recommendation of the said Tribunal.
3) In pursuance of recommendations of 4th CPC, a committee was constituted by DoPT to determine the rates of NDA. While implementing the committee’s recommendations it was held in the DoPT O.M cited in reference-2 that “The ceiling of pay for entitlement of Night Duty Allowance shall be Rs.2200/- per month. There will, however, be no ceiling for entitlement of Night Duty Allowance in respect of the officials who are at present getting this benefit as per existing criteria”
4) 5th CPC in its recommendations in para 106.32 recommended for continuance of NDA to all Group ‘C’ & ‘D’ employees of Indian Railways and recommended that, “the relaxation of the ceiling for Night Duty Allowance be restricted to only those categories presently availing themselves of this benefit. It may not be extended to any further categories. On all other aspects of Night Duty Allowance we recommend status quo.”
5) 6th CPC in its recommendations in para 4.2.87 recommended for doubling of extent rates of Night Duty Allowance without modifying any other criteria.
6) 7th CPC cited DoPT’s O.M. No.12012/4/86-Estt. (Allowances) of 04.10.1989 (cited in reference-2) in para 8.17.73 as a base of its recommendations on Night Duty Allowance.
7) 7th CPC accepted that, compensation for night workers in the form of working time, pay or similar benefits shall recognise the nature of night work, there are deleterious effects of prolonged periods of continuous night duty and sleep is likely to be interrupted during day time compared to night time.
8) 7th CPC in para 8.17.76 discussed about the rate of NDA paid to all Railway Employees at each level of Grade Pay based on the average of Minimum and Maximum of the entire Pay Band and recommended that with the computerization of pay rolls, the amount of Night Duty Allowance can be easily calculated for each employee on actual basic pay drawn by them.
9) 7th CPC in para 8.17.77 recommended the following:
- This amount of NDA should, however, be worked out separately for each employee. With the computerization of pay rolls, working out the amount of NDA automatically for each employee every month will not entail any difficulty. The existing formulation for giving same rate of NDA for all employees with a particular GP should be abolished.
- This formulation will extend to all employees across all ministries/departments who were already in receipt of Night Duty Allowance.
10) 4th, 5th & 6th CPCs recommended rates of Night Duty Allowance for all Group ‘C’ & ‘D’ Railway employees without any ceiling and extended it to all the employees already in receipt of it.
11) 7th CPC recommended NDA based on actual basic pay, and extended it to all employees already in receipt of NDA.
12) Hence, fixing any ceiling of basic pay for entitlement of NDA is in violation of CPCs Recommendation.
13) All those working in Pay Level 7 are deprived. Even seniors in the Pay Level 5 and 6, whose basic pay have crossed the ceiling limit of Rs. 43,600 are deprived with respect to the juniors. There will be general aversion among seniors to work in night shift. This will ultimately affect the quality.
14) It is therefore requested that, all the non-gazetted staff who are booked to perform night duty for round the clock train operation, irrespective of category, cadre, department, should be allowed to claim Night Duty Allowance without any upper pay ceiling, and orders of recovery should also be withdrawn forthwith.
Thanking You
Yours faithfully,
(Harchandan Singh),
General Secretary, IRTSA
Copy for Kind information & n.a
Director General (HR), Railway Board, Rail Bhavan, New Delhi
Source : IRTSA
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