The Indian Railway Technical Supervisors' Association (IRTSA) is pushing for a significant change in salary revision under the 8th Pay Commission (8th CPC). Unlike most of the other employee and pension bodies that have recommended a uniform fitment factor to the 8th Pay Commission, the Railway association has suggested different fitment factors for different levels of employees, starting from 2.92 to 4.38.
What are the different fitment factors that IRTSA has proposed to the 8th Pay Commission (8th CPC)?
IRTSA has submitted its recommendations to the 8th Pay Commission, suggesting that the government should move away from the one-fitment-factor-for-all approach followed in the earlier pay commissions.
Instead, it has proposed five separate fitment factors based on employee pay levels. According to the association, this method would create a more balanced salary structure across lower, middle and senior level employees.
IRTSA proposes these 5 fitment factors to 8th CPC
Level 1-5 - 2.92
Level 6-8 - 3.50
Level 9-12 - 3.80
Level 13-16 - 4.09
Level 17-18 - 4.38
IRTSA proposes new cadre structure for railway technical supervisors
The Railway technical staff body has also suggested a new cadre structure for technical supervisors with the following starting pays-
Junior Engineer - Level-7 - Rs 1,57,400
Senior Section Engineer (Gr-B) - Level-8 - Rs 1,66,800
Asst Manager (Gr-B) - Level-9 - Rs 2,01,600
Manager (Gr-B) - Level-10 - Rs 2,13,000
Senior Manager (Gr-A) - Level-11 - Rs 2,57,000
IRTSA in its memorandum says that a five-grade pay structure should be available for the technical supervisors category in Railways similar to CPSE (ONGC).
"The wages of technocrats, specially those in Railways, should be fixed separately from those of non-technocrat employees with a view to adequately compensate them for hazards/job requirements, additional working hours and peculiar conditions of service," says IRTSA in its memorandum.
Career progression of Railway technical employees
IRTSA has demanded that the number of financial upgradation for an employee under Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) should be five in 30 years of service. Financial upgradation under MACP should be awarded after 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 years of service, according to IRTSA.
Pay structure for Railway technical supervisors
IRTSA has proposed that the pay structure for Railway technical supervisors should adequately reflect the substantial difference in duties and responsibilities of the various posts. Hence, they suggested that multiple fitment factors should be adopted for different levels of employees.
IRTSA says that in the Ministry of Railways, for safety category posts, higher indexing of fitment factors should be followed for posts from Level 6.
What is the fitment factor?
The fitment factor is the multiplier a pay commission uses to revise the basic salary of central government employees.
Under the 7th Pay Commission, a fitment factor of 2.57 was used for all employees. This means that the existing basic pay was multiplied by 2.57 to arrive at the revised salary.
How revised salaries of Railway technical employees may be calculated at different fitment factors
Here are the examples of how the proposed fitment factors may work for Railway technical employees-
Level 1-5 employee
If an employee's current basic pay is Rs 20,000 and the proposed fitment factor is 2.92, their revised pay will be= Rs 20,000 × 2.92 = Rs 58,400
Level 6-8 employee
If the current basic pay is Rs 45,000 and the proposed fitment factor is 3.50, the revised pay will be Rs 45,000 × 3.50 = Rs 1,57,500
Level 13-16 employee
If the current basic pay is Rs 1,20,000, and the proposed fitment factor is 4.09, the revised pay will be-
Rs 1,20,000 × 4.09 = Rs 4,90,800
Note that these are only illustrative calculations based on the proposed multipliers and are not official salary figures.
