TN raises retirement age of staff to 59, puts off ₹5,000cr payment
Julie Mariappan & B Sivakumar TNN
Chennai: 08.05.2020
Call it Covid-19 effect, a cash-strapped TN government on Thursday increased the retirement age of its staff from 58 years to 59 years to defer an outgo of ₹5,000 crore towards retirement benefits for the current fiscal. More than 25,000 government employees were set to superannuate this financial year.
The order has come into immediate effect and will be applicable to all government employees, teaching and nonteaching staff in government and aided educational institutions, and employees of constitutional statutory bodies, PSUs, corporations, local bodies, boards, commissions and societies. Those who are due for retirement on May 31 this year will now retire on May 31, 2021. The move is also aimed at appeasing the 12 lakh-odd government employees and teachers, whose DA increase and leave surrender facility have been frozen for a year.
Increase in retirement age evokes mixed response from govt employees
The increase in retirement age has evoked mixed response from government employees. TN government officials’ union (TNGOU) and Tamil Nadu secretariat association have welcomed it. Secretariat association president Peter Anthonysamy said, “It is a welcome move, especially as it comes when a global pandemic is wreaking havoc.”
But joint action council of Tamil Nadu teachers’ organisations and government employees’ organisations strongly condemned the move, saying it would adversely affect job opportunity of youngsters and delay promotions of senior employees. “It is an indirect attempt to ban recruitment for a year, akin to the fiveyear ban on direct recruitment enforced in 2001,” Jactto-Geo state coordinator T Anbarasu said. Jactto-Geo fears that the government, going by the recent recommendations of staff rationalisation committee, would even outsource some work, instead of filling up vacancies. The ban on direct recruitment was lifted in 2006.
The Tamil Nadu government employees’ association has announced a state-wide protest on Friday in front of government offices seeking withdrawal of the order. Tamil Nadu cooperative department association president M Soundararajan, said, “The increase in age of superannuation will leave youngsters distressed. There were talks of giving one-year extension to employees in essential services. We never expected extension of service for all.”
The MGR government raised the age of superannuation from 55 to 58 years in Tamil Nadu in April 1979.
“We needed to cut expenditure drastically. By freezing dearness allowance and leave surrender facility and lowering PF interest rate (to 8%), we saved ₹7,850 crore annually, which is roughly 12% of the total salary bill of ₹64,208 crore for the current fiscal. As regards ₹5,000 crore retirement benefits (₹2,764 crore towards gratuity and ₹2,221 crore for leave surrender), of 25,000 people who were expected to retire this year, we are only deferring payment by a year. It gives us some breathing time. It is not savings,” said a senior official in the finance department.
The TN government employees’ association has announced a state-wide protest on Friday in front of government offices seeking withdrawal of the order
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