In a meeting with 8th Pay Commission chairperson Ranjana Prakash Desai and other officials in New Delhi on Wednesday, the All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF) demanded that defence civilian employees should receive equal pay scales, promotions and benefits as Railway employees , along with the same risk and hardship allowances that uniformed personnel enjoy.
In addition to these points, AIDEF also talked about the minimum pay, fitment factor, promotion policy, restoration of the Old Pension Scheme , CGHS/medical issues, benefits for women and disabled employees, and more.
AIDEF reiterated its call for a minimum pay of Rs 69,000 for entry-level employees and 3.83 fitment factor for all central government employees under the 8th Pay Commission.
Also Read: Rs 65K minimum pay, 3.8 fitment factor for 8th Pay Commission: What Maharashtra pension body demands
Parity with Railway employees in pay scales, promotions and benefits
AIDEF general secretary C Srikumar told ET Wealth Online that the defence civilian employee body has demanded the same pay scale, promotion and some other benefits that Indian Railway employees get.
In a circular dated May 13, 2026, AIDEF says Indian Railways and the Ministry of Defence are the major employers of industrial employees, but defence civilian employees are always discriminated against in matters of pay scales, promotion, inter-grade ratio for the artisan staff compared to Railway employees.
AIDEF further argued that despite the defence job requiring a lot of precision with zero tolerance in the process of manufacturing arms, ammunition, explosives, weapons and hazardous chemicals, they are discriminated against.
“This discrimination and disparity need to be removed once for all. The 8th CPC may recommend that there should not be any disparity in the matter of pay scales, promotions and other benefits, etc., between Railway and defence civilian employees,” says the circular.
Removal of disparity between uniformed personnel and defence civilian employees
The AIDEF circular mentions that defence civilian employees work side by side with the Armed Forces personnel in defence establishments, including in border areas and high altitudes.
“However, many benefits, such as risk and hardship allowances are available to armed forces personnel but not to defence civilian employees. Such discrimination should not be there in such welfare matters, etc,” the circular reads.
AIDEF has demanded a risk allowance of Rs 15,000 per month.
Rs 2 crore ex-gratia and status of martyr for employees who die in accidents
AIDEF says many defence civilian employees die in accidents such as explosions, etc, for which, their family gets only Rs 25 lakh as an ex-gratia payment.
AIDEF says such ex-gratia payment should be increased to Rs 2 crore.
“Moreover, the status of martyr should be conferred on defence civilian employees who die in accidents while performing their duty,” says AIDEF.
5 mandatory promotions for Group C and B defence civilian employees
AIDEF suggests that due to the current stagnation and unnecessary delay in cadre reviews, all Group C and Group B defence civilian employees should get at least five promotions in the form of Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACP) over a span of 30 years of service.
