DA hike, arrears.- Key FinMin - DoPT - JCM meeting today.

The key meeting involving the government staff side and the official side is to happen today i.e. 26 June 202126.06.2021 (Saturday) at 10.30 AM onwards. It is expected that the decision on the pending dearness allowance (DA) along with arrears, which the central government employees are eagerly waiting, will be taken up at the meeting. The "Item No. NC-48/6/ 21 Withdrawal of orders of DA/ DR freeze." is listed as one of the agenda points 

The government due to the financial burden that arose due to the COVID 19 pandemic has frozen the DA at January 2020 rates. Hence as of date, the three increments in the dearness allowance in accordance with the 7th pay commission are due to the employees. The dearness allowance rate is directly calculated based on the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) released by the Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour and Employment,  Based on this it is expected that the DA from 1 January 2021 will be 28%. From 17% announced for July 2019 onwards, the DA should have increased by 4% in January 2020, then by 3% in June 2020 and by 4% in January 2021 making it 28%

The meeting will be attended by the officials representing the Finance Ministry, the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT). and the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM).. The meeting will be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, Govt. of India.

Joint Consultative Machinery is a platform for constructive dialogue between the representatives of the staff side and the official side for peaceful resolution of all disputes between the Central Government as an employer and the regular civil employees of the Central Government. It constitutes representatives of the staff side for various Joint Councils selected from members of the recognized service associations and unions.  Shiva Gopal Mishra, Secretary, Staff Side at National Council of JCM have said that the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) hike will be on the agenda. He had also added that central government officials are quite cooperative over the matter of DA arrears to the central government employees.

Apart from the dearness allowance/arrears, a lot of other issues such as other allowance, productivity linked bonus in place of Adhoc Bonus, revision of Central Govt. Employees Group Insurance Scheme, tax exemption transport/running allowance etc will be taken up at the meeting. For the full list of Agenda Points click here