8th Pay Commission Appointments: The government has started the process to fill 42 vacancies, including consultants, and the chairman post in the 8th Pay Commission, which will start working from later next month once the terms of reference (ToR) is finalised.
On April 21, the Department of Expenditure (DoE) under the Ministry of Finance issued two separate circulars to appoint 40 personnel to the 8th Pay Commission. Most of these positions will be filled by officials from various government departments on a deputation basis. Besides these 40 posts, the chairman and two other key members will be selected.
The names to fill the top positions, including the chairman and two other members, have almost been finalised, and the announcements in this regard will be made very soon, said an official.
The appointed members, including two directors/deputy secretaries, three under secretaries, and 37 others will be tasked with a preparatory groundwork after ToR comes out, the official said.
8th pay panel to have fewer members than 7th CPC
If we look at the previous structure, the 7th Pay Commission comprised a total of 45 people — including the chairman, 18 people in the secretariat, 16 consultants and 7 other employees. This commission was headed by Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur and had a total of four other key members.
The 6th Pay Commission also had four members including the chairman, but only 17 people were working in the secretariat. The 6th Pay Commission was headed by Justice BN Srikrishna.
Interestingly, the number of members in the 5th Pay Commission was even less — just three members. If we talk about the initial phase, the first Pay Commission (1st CPC) had nine members, the second had six, while the third and fourth Pay Commissions had five members each.
Staff Side of the NC-JCM begins preparations
Meanwhile, the Staff Side of the National Council (JCM) has begun preparations for a comprehensive memorandum to be submitted to the 8th pay panel after an extended meeting of its Standing Committee on 22nd April.
Several key issues related to central government employees and pensioners were discussed in detail in this meeting, including minimum wages, pay scales, fitment factor, allowances, promotion policy and pension benefits.
A drafting committee has been set up to prepare the memorandum. This committee will have representatives from major staff federations. These federations will send the names of their representatives by 30th April 2025.
The memorandum will be finalised after taking extensive discussions and suggestions from all constituent organisations.
“All constituent organisations are once again requested to submit their views on the above mentioned topics in both PDF and Word formats…on or before 20/05/2025,” Staff Side Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra said in a circular.
Also read: 8th Pay Commission implementation may get delayed till 2027 – Here’s why
“These posts are to be staffed from the date of constitution of the 8th CPC till the closure of the commission,” the DoE said in the circular. It also said that the review of applications for the vacant posts will continue till all the posts are filled.
However, the government has not yet announced the formal formation of the 8th Pay Commission or its Terms of Reference (ToR). But frequent circulars and internal meetings indicate that preparations are going on at a fast pace and the commission may start functioning in the next few months.
Once the 8th Pay Commission becomes active, it will play a key role in revising the pay structure and service conditions of about 48 lakh central government employees and over 57 lakh pensioners.