Disparity’ in retirement benefit riles employees
BENGALURU, JULY 29, 2018 00:00 IST
A. Mallesh Reddy and R. Padmanabhan, retired employees of a private bank here, are running around to lobby for changes in the recent amendments to Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 instead of looking forward to a peaceful retirement life.
The amendment in the current form has affected lakhs of employees across many sectors covered by the Act, who have retired between January 1, 2016 and March 29, 2018.
What has riled them is the “disparity” between retiring Central government employees and others in calculation of gratuity — an important portion of retirement benefits — after the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations were implemented. While the CPC recommendations, which enhanced gratuity limit from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh, was implemented to the Central government employees from January 1, 2016, for others the implementation date was fixed as March 28, 2018. Those who retired in the interim period have been deprived of this enhancement.
Mr. Padmanabhan told The Hindu that they have submitted memoranda to several Union Ministers to bring changes in amendments to provide benefits with retrospective effect to all. An online petition launched to impress upon the government about the “disparity” in implementation date had garnered over a lakh signatures. It has also led to several legal tussles with individual aggrieved employees going to court.
In an important development, following representations, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment sought advice from the Ministry of Law and Justice on whether the benefits could be given to employees with retrospective effect.
The Law Ministry felt that the Union government is empowered to notify the ceiling proposal from prospective as well as retrospective effect. The legal advice by the ministry has been obtained through a RTI query.
According to Mr. Reddy, employees who retired from banking, insurance and public sector undertakings among many others, who are covered under the Gratuity Act, have been affected. “Representations have been made to re-notify the implementation date to January 1, 2016. The proposal for re-notification is pending in the Labour Ministry.” Explaining the genesis of the problem, he said: “The enhancement of gratuity for Central government employees was also followed by I-T exemption. However, neither gratuity nor I-T exemption was given to us.”
BENGALURU, JULY 29, 2018 00:00 IST
A. Mallesh Reddy and R. Padmanabhan, retired employees of a private bank here, are running around to lobby for changes in the recent amendments to Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 instead of looking forward to a peaceful retirement life.
The amendment in the current form has affected lakhs of employees across many sectors covered by the Act, who have retired between January 1, 2016 and March 29, 2018.
What has riled them is the “disparity” between retiring Central government employees and others in calculation of gratuity — an important portion of retirement benefits — after the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) recommendations were implemented. While the CPC recommendations, which enhanced gratuity limit from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh, was implemented to the Central government employees from January 1, 2016, for others the implementation date was fixed as March 28, 2018. Those who retired in the interim period have been deprived of this enhancement.
Mr. Padmanabhan told The Hindu that they have submitted memoranda to several Union Ministers to bring changes in amendments to provide benefits with retrospective effect to all. An online petition launched to impress upon the government about the “disparity” in implementation date had garnered over a lakh signatures. It has also led to several legal tussles with individual aggrieved employees going to court.
In an important development, following representations, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment sought advice from the Ministry of Law and Justice on whether the benefits could be given to employees with retrospective effect.
The Law Ministry felt that the Union government is empowered to notify the ceiling proposal from prospective as well as retrospective effect. The legal advice by the ministry has been obtained through a RTI query.
According to Mr. Reddy, employees who retired from banking, insurance and public sector undertakings among many others, who are covered under the Gratuity Act, have been affected. “Representations have been made to re-notify the implementation date to January 1, 2016. The proposal for re-notification is pending in the Labour Ministry.” Explaining the genesis of the problem, he said: “The enhancement of gratuity for Central government employees was also followed by I-T exemption. However, neither gratuity nor I-T exemption was given to us.”
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