7th Pay Commission latest news today: Minimum wage of Central Government employee to be hiked from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000

New Delhi, July 2: The Narendra Modi government who is facing tremendous pressure from the Central Government employees unions going ahead on indefinite strike, is likely to increase the minimum monthly wage of its employees. The government has indicated that it may increase the minimum monthly pay of central government employees from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. The 7th Pay Commission headed by retired Justice A K Mathur had suggested Rs 18,000 salary but its seems that the union is reluctant who had called for indefinite strike from July 11.

Minutes after recommendations made by 7CPC was approved by the Modi government on Wednesday, various central government employees union had threatened to carry out indefinite strike which may become a nightmare for the Centre. However some employees union seem to be divided on whether to go ahead with indefinite strike from July 11.

On Thursday night three cabinet ministers- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu – met several staff unions where they discussed about the demands for about two hours. The three cabinet ministers assured that their demand of hike in minimum wage from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 will be considered. 

Three years ago, since the 7th pay Commission officials started working on preparing the demands, the unions have been demanding to increase the minimum wage to Rs 26,000. There are around 47 lakh employee working under Central Government’s pay roll out of which around 41 lakh are C-Grade (minimum wage) employees. Earlier their salary were Rs 7,000 and almost it has been more than double now. The officials said that after accepting the recommendations made by the 7CPC, the government has a burden of an extra Rs 1.02 trillion in the hands of 1 crore government employee including pensioners.

Shiva Gopal Mishra, General Secretary of the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) was quoted by Livemint where he said, “On Thursday night at around 11 pm we met three top ministers who called us at Rajnath Singh’s house”. Mishra said, “that the union was assured that the minimum wage issue is going to be referred to one of two committees that the government is setting up to rectify any anomalies in the pay commission recommendations’ implementation”.

NJCA claims membership of around 33 lakh government employees, including several lakh workers of Indian Railways, the country’s largest employer. Mishra also said that the government will rectify some of our demands, including minimum wage.

Around 47 lakh government employee and more than 57 lakh pensioners have been eagerly waiting for the approval of 7CPC. But after Wednesday more than 33 lakh government employees are unhappy with the decision who are planning for indefinite strike from next week.