LDC-UDC ISSUE-TOWARDS A FINAL ACTION 

        PAPER  SUBMITTED IN THE DELHI MEETING

Dear friends,

            This is an assembly of the representatives of deprived & low paid but highly responsible employees in the clerical cadre of category of Group C working in various offices of Government of India offices i.e. LDC & UDC whose cases have been ignored by successive pay commissions and Governments with regard to the payment of equal pay for equal work and genuine promotional avenues. On the other hand, the various Employees Federations in which the Administrative Staff including the LDC & UDC are members in Ministries/Departments of the Government of India have not been taking interest to resolve the issue of LDC & UDC so far and as such the issue could not be highlighted.  During the last few months we have done vigorous campaign justifying the higher Grade pay to these sections through the web site www.aiamshq.blogspot.in. The issue has been widely published in various employees’ web sites including Central Government Employees News, gconnect.in etc who have actively supported our endeavor.  As a result now the matter has become much popular and more or less all central Government Employees Associations have realized the gravity of the issue. It is to be mentioned here that the Confederation of Central Government Employees & workers has actively supported us to bring the issue before the authorities concerned. The matter was discussed in the Confederation’s National Executive Meeting on several occasions and accordingly the issue was put up as an additional item in the National Anomaly Committee (NAC) meeting in the year 2011. But the item could not be discussed in the NAC so far due to the fact that the Government has differed from their earlier decision of convening a final meeting of NAC to discuss the additional NAC items and the decision of MACP Anomaly Committee.

            By coming to the subject matter, instead of presenting a detailed report on the LDC & UDC issue, I would like to put up a list of events to throw light on the matter and the action initiated to achieve demand so far, in this meeting.

1.     Why the entire LDC & UDC cadres of Govt. of India are disappointed?

1.1       Sixth Pay Commission has denied an appropriate pay structure to the LDC & UDC of Government of India Offices in the light of raising the academic and technical qualification and responsibilities assigned.  As per SSC notification, Lower Division Clerks are entrusted with routine nature of work viz. Dispatch, Diary, maintenance of  file register, file movement register, indexing and recording of files, typing, comparing, preparation of arrear and other statements etc. But in practice, particularly in subordinate offices these cadres are entrusted with quality and highly responsible administrative sections. Here, these cadres have been made responsible for the smooth functioning of the office. The grade pay of LDC is Rs. 1900 which is just Rs. 100 more than the Grade pay of MTS. Moreover, the posts of all erstwhile group D, below the post of LDC have been merged and upgraded to Rs. 1800. Similarly, the pay scales of the staff above the level of UDC in the Administrative section have been merged and upgraded.

1.2       Several of posts with unskilled work in various Ministries have been granted more pay than the pay of LDC.  A man working as dhobi, Nai, Mochi, Sweeper of Railway Protection Force get Rs. 2000 Grade pay; a Dak runner of Income Tax Department get more pay/benefit than a LDC. Instances of several other posts are also available.

1.3       The Grade Pay granted to the Data Entry Operator in Government of India Offices is Rs. 2400/ and the same for the LDC is Rs. 1900. The academic qualifications required for both LDC and DEO are the same i.e. 12^th class pass or equivalent. And the technical qualification/skill for the candidates appear for the post of LDC requires 10500 KDPH/9000 KDPH English and Hindi typing respectively on computer whereas the candidate appearing the DEO requires 8000 KDPH. As regards the work assignment, the DEO has only to entry the data given to them whereas the LDCs have to create data, draft letters and then to type on computer, putting up the matter through file note with justification with the support of rules and procedure. Thus LDC does more work in qualitative and quantitative terms with less grade pay than the DEO.

1.4       As per records available with this Association, LDC & UDCs or posts equivalent to LDC & UDC in several State Governments that granted to the posts in Central Government. Majority of these State Governments have implemented the 6^th Pay Commission.

1.5     ACP granted on hierarchical post basis so far has been replaced with MACP wherein a hierarchical grade pay only is provided. As such low paid employees whose hierarchical grade pay and promotional grade pay are different suffered a lot. As a result an LDC will get the first financial up gradation only to the Grade Pay of Rs. 2000 on his completion of 10 years service. It is to be noted that similar cases are available in various cadres. From the above, it can be assessed how the Government’s mind set work for the LDC & UDCs.

2.     Action initiated to resolve it and events occurred thereafter.

2.1       Aggrieved over the aforesaid negligence on the part of Government of India,  the All India Association of Administrative Staff has sent a letter to the Prime Minister vide letter dated 16/04/2010 and the Prime Minister’s Office has forwarded the same to DoPT for action vide letter dated 18/05/2010. When DoPT has not taken any action on the basis of frequent enquires through RTI Act till June 2013, the Association has written another letter to the Prime Minister’s Office along with the copies of the RTI replies vide letter dated 20/06/2013.

2.2       The letter sent to the PM’s office has been forwarded to DoPT for action vide PMO letter dated 15/07/2013. CS –II section of the DoPT, having found it as a matter of anomaly, has forwarded the same to the JCA Section for action vide letter dated 13/08/2013.

2.3       On 16/09/2013 this Association has written a letter with full justification for the upgradation of the Grade Pay of LDC & UDC to the members of National Anomaly Committee and requested their personal intervention on the matter.

2.4       The JCA section, without considering the fact that an item for the upgradation of grade pay of LDC & UDC has already been pending with the National Anomaly Committee for discussion, has returned the case to CS II vide letter dated 14/08/2013 with suggestion to process the case along with the LDC & UDC of Central Secretariat at CS II in consultation with Department of Expenditure.

2.5       Without considering the merits of the JCA’s aforesaid letter, the CS II has returned the case to this Association vide letter dated 19/09/2013 with a direction to take it up with Department of Expenditure. In this respect, the related officer in DoPT has informed me orally that the LDC & UDC of Central Secretariat have not demanded upgradation of pay so far.  CS II is dealing the issues of LDC & UDCs of Central Secretariat and as such the cases which do not come under CS II (LDC & UDC of subordinate Offices) are not considered and as such it has been returned.

2.6       On 14/10/2013, the case was forwarded to the Secretary, Department of Expenditure along with comparative study of Pay structure granted to the MTS, DEO and LDC as well as the pay structure of LDC & UDC of State Governments getting more pay than their counterparts in Central Government.

3.     Confederation’s efforts & results.

3.1       Subsequent to forwarding of the representation to Department of Expenditure, Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers has written a letter in support of the upgradation of grade pay of LDC & UDC to the Department of Expenditure vide letter dated 25/10/2013.

3.2       In response to Confederation’s aforesaid letter, Department of Expenditure has issued a letter to the Financial Advisor; Department of Personal & Training stating that the representations received from the Individuals and Associations, for upgradation of grade pay of LDC & UDC, is forwarded to the concerned Administrative Ministry/Departments with an advice to examine the representation. And, asked to forward the cases to Department of Expenditure on the basis of merit of the case.

3.3       The National Secretariat Meeting of the Confederation held on 28/11/2013 discussed the matter and after detailed deliberations Com. S.K. Vyas, JCM National Council, Standing Committee Member has opined that even though this issue is already with Anomaly Committee, no finality could be reached due to the fact that the meeting of the committee had not been convened for long. As Government has announced 7^th CPC there is every possibility of Government referring these anomalies to 7^th CPC. Hence he advised the Association to seek legal remedy also while continuing our efforts to settle the issue in the Anomaly Committee.

4.     State of LDC & UDC in Railways & Defense Departments.

4.         In the Railways, where a larger number of Junior Clerks with Rs. 1900 grade pay is posted has not demanded the upgradation of the grade pay so far. This Association has written letters to 9 members of NAC belonging to Railways to support the demand. And even though the charter of upgradation of grade pay of Junior Clerk is not reflected in the charter of demands put up by the Railways Unions. Similarly, hundreds of LDC & UDC serving in the Defence Ministry contacted me to convey their disappointment on the present grade pay of LDC in comparison with the quality work assigned to them by their Ministry. But the demand for the upgradation of grade pay has not been raised by the employees’ associations in the Railways.

5.     Conclusion:

            Hundreds of comments demanding major and result oriented action on the issue have been posted in our web site and also in various other web sites so far. Besides, we have been receiving messages through SMS, e-mail, over phone and even through post from the LDC & UDCs of various Ministries of GOI. It is clear; LDC & UDC posted in various Ministries are of the view that the time has come to take a final action towards the fulfilment of the demand raised. And we are assembled here to decide the action programme to be chalked out at this stage. Our web site has published three letters during the last one and half months to ascertain the view of the readers. So far the readers have proposed four line of action to reach the goal and a letter containing the said action was posted in our web site on 30th December 2013. As has already said, the Confederation has already opined to seek legal remedy. And yet, representatives of the LDC & UDC assembled here today has to discuss all the four points put forth and take a final decision regarding future action on the subject.

          I am sure this meeting will be in a position to reach a logical decision on the matter.

With warm regards,

Yours Sincerely,

TKR Pillai

General Secretary

e-mail:aiams08@gmail.com/Mob. 09425372172