Allowances for working on Holidays - 7th Pay Commission Report

Allowances for working on Holidays - 7th Pay Commission Report

7th Pay Commission Report on Allowances for working on holidays – Holiday Monetary Compensation more than doubled – National Holiday allowance increased by 1.5 times

Employees, who are regularly required to work on holidays, like the employees of Delhi Police and the CISF, are granted an extra month’s pay per year. Employees of other CAPFs are granted extra thirty days’ leave. Some other categories of staff are paid allowances.

Allowances Covered

1. Holiday Compensatory Allowance

2. Holiday Monetary Compensation

3. National Holiday Allowance

Holiday Compensatory Allowance

It is a compensation for non-gazetted staff of IB who are required to perform duties on holidays and weekends; granted at the rate of one day’s (Basic Pay + DA) for up to thirty days in a financial year. No demands have been received regarding this allowance.

Analysis and Recommendations

The Commission notes that employees in almost all Ministries/Departments are, sometimes, required to work on weekends. They are usually compensated by providing a “compensatory off.” Thus, grant of an allowance for weekend working is not justified.

At the same time, the sensitive, and time bound nature of work done by IB should also be kept in mind. Therefore, it is recommended that the non-gazetted staff of IB, presently covered under Holiday Compensatory Allowance, should, henceforth, be covered by National Holiday Allowance. They will be granted this allowance for up to twelve holidays in a year (including the three National Holidays) at the ratesprescribed.  Accordingly, Holiday Compensatory Allowance, as a separate allowance, should be abolished.

Holiday Monetary Compensation

This allowance is granted in Department of Posts and is payable to postmen and other departmental staff who are required to perform duty on second holiday if three consecutive holidays occur. The existing rates are:

Category   Rate of Remuneration

Supervisor Rs.85 per holiday for 4 hours

Postal Assistant Rs.85 per holiday for 4 hours

Postmen/Sorting Postmen Rs.85 per holiday

Multi-tasking staff Rs.60 per holiday for 4 hours

Demands have been received to increase the rate of this allowance to Rs.600 per holiday.

Analysis and Recommendations

Since the allowance is not DA indexed, it is proposed to raise the amount to Rs.200 per holiday for Supervisors, Postal Assistants and Postmen/Sorting Postmen; and Rs.150 per holiday for Multi-tasking Staff. The rate of allowance will further increase by 25 percent each time DA increases by 50 percent.

National Holiday Allowance

This allowance is paid to non-gazetted Railway employees who are rostered to work on a “National Holiday.” The existing rates are:

Pay in Pay Band + Grade Pay Rate

up to Rs.7260 Rs.256 per day

Rs.7261-Rs.9700 Rs.318 per day

Rs.9701 and above (limited to non-gazetted staff) Rs.420 per day

There are demands to increase the amount of this allowance to 1.5 x (one day’s Basic Pay + DA)

Analysis and Recommendations

The Commission notes that although there are only three National Holidays, this allowance is granted for twelve days in a year due to operational constraints. Also, the allowance is already partially indexed to the DA. Hence, it is recommended that the amount should be increased by 50 percent to the following:

Level Rate of Allowance (per day)

1 and 2 Rs.384

3 to 5 Rs.477

6 to 8 (limited to non-gazetted staff) Rs.630

The rate of allowance will further increase by 25 percent each time DA rises by 50 percent.

Source:Govemployees