NewDelhi: The Staff Side of the National Council (Joint Consultative Machinery – NC-JCM) has proposed that the family be treated as five instead of three units. It has also added that the minimum pay must be based on a scientific living wage formula covering food, housing, education, healthcare, transport and the technological requirements.
At the heart of the Rs 69,000 demand is a move away from the traditional three unit family model used in earlier pay commissions. The Staff Side has proposed a five unit family framework consisting of employee, spouse, children and dependent parents.
NC-JCM has said that the Present system of treating a family as 3 Units should be dispensed with and the Family should be treated as 5 Units. Here’s the 5 units family framework break-down
Employee: 1 Unit Spouse: 1 Unit (No Gender Discrimination) 2 Children: 0.8 Units Each of the parents: 0.8 Units.
This works out to a total of 5.2 Units (Rounded off to 5 Units), as per the memorandum.
The memorandum said that under legal obligations under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, it is mandatory that children support dependent parents. The current minimum pay is inadequate and must ensure a decent standard of living and not subsistence, the memorandum said.
The memorandum states that considering the average retail prices of the food items, clothing expenditure, 7.5 percent for housing, 20 percent for fuel, electricity, water charges, 25 percent for skill development and for additional expenditure towards marriage, recreation, festival, technology charges at the rate of 5 percent, the minimum pay computed by the Staff Side is Rs 69,000 for a five unit family.
The Staff Side mentions that the earlier 2700 kcal norm is inadequate and therefore, the ICMR recommendation of 3490 kcal should be adopted, especially for physically demanding work. The Staff Side said that nutrition must ensure health, productivity and dignity and not mere survival. The food basket must include: — Adequate protein sources such as milk, eggs, meat and fish. — Dairy consumption of 30-35 litres per month for 5 units — Fruits, vegetables and balanced nutrition — Spices, beverages and processed food
Based on the Rs 69,000 minimum pay, the Staff Side also proposed a fitment factor of 3.833 for fixing the pay of existing employees and for increasing the pension of existing pensioners.
The memorandum proposed raising the rate of annual increment from the existing 3 to 6 percent. It also proposed the merger of pay scales and the revised pay scales of 8th CPC.
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