- Central government employees demand OROP for pension parity.
- OROP ensures comparable pensions for same rank, equivalent service.
- Past commissions tried bridging gaps; disparities persist, fueling demand.
Two central government employees could retire from the same post after serving for an identical number of years, yet receive different pension amounts because they retired under different pay structures. This disparity is at the heart of a demand being raised by employee organisations before the 8th Pay Commission.
The organisations want the government to extend the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) principle to civilian central government employees, bringing pension calculations closer to a common framework across retirement years.
The demand comes despite previous Pay Commissions recommending changes to pension calculations to narrow the gap between older and newer retirees.
Pension Differences Across Retirement Years Remain A Concern
Manjeet Singh Patel, president of the All India New Pension Scheme Employees Federation, told ET Wealth Online that substantial differences persist in pension amounts among central government retirees.
While pensioners covered under the old pension system receive periodic increases through Pay Commissions, Patel said these revisions have not eliminated the disparities.
C Srikumar, general secretary of the All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), said extending OROP could help remove pension differences between employees retiring from the same post at different points in time.
Employee organisations are therefore seeking a system that takes into account an employee’s post and length of service, rather than allowing the year of retirement to create significant differences in pension benefits.
Also Read : Selling Herbicides Online? Amazon, Flipkart And JioMart Face Rs 25 Lakh In Fines
What Is The OROP Principle And Who Does It Cover?
One Rank, One Pension is based on the principle that personnel holding the same rank and having completed an equivalent length of service should receive comparable pensions, irrespective of their retirement date.
The framework currently applies primarily to armed forces personnel and certain other categories. It has not been extended to all civilian central government employees.
The demand before the 8th Pay Commission is to bring civilian employees within a similar framework, so that retirees from equivalent posts and with comparable service periods receive broadly similar pension benefits.
How Previous Pay Commissions Tried To Bridge The Gap
The issue of pension parity has been considered in earlier pay revision exercises.
The 5th Pay Commission recommended revising pensions of employees who had retired before 1986 by linking them to the new pay scales. The approach involved notional pay fixation, under which a revised pay figure was determined for calculating pension.
The 7th Pay Commission also recognised the differences between pensions received by older retirees and those retiring under newer pay structures. It recommended a revised calculation method aimed at improving parity between the two groups.
However, employee organisations continue to flag differences in pension payments across retirement years, prompting renewed calls for a broader framework under the 8th Pay Commission.
Will The 8th Pay Commission Recommend OROP For Civilian Employees?
The extension of OROP is among the demands being raised by employee bodies as the 8th Pay Commission considers issues concerning salaries and pensions.
For civilian employees, the proposal would seek to reduce disparities between people retiring from the same post after an equivalent period of service, even when their retirement years differ.
Whether the Commission recommends extending OROP to civilian employees, and whether the government subsequently accepts such a proposal, remains undecided.
Also Read : 3-Day Bank Strike From Tomorrow: Why Banks Are Working On Sunday, September 27
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: abplive.com
