Himachal Pradesh govt puts on hold decision to withdraw higher pay grade to employees

Shimla, Sep 8 (PTI) Facing flak from employee unions and the opposition BJP, the Himachal Pradesh government on Monday "held in abeyance" the September 6 notification withdrawing higher pay grade to its employees.

The notification affected about 14,000 employees of 89 categories who feared that they would suffer a loss of Rs 5,000 to 15,000 per month.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday said that the notification to remove Rule 7A from the Himachal Pradesh Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2022, issued on September 6, 2025, shall be held in abeyance as the government was committed to safeguarding the interests of the employees and issuing such a notification was not justified.

While making amendments in rules and regulations, humanitarian concerns must always be kept in mind, he stressed in a statement issued here.

The BJP had said that Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country where the Congress government has reduced employees' salaries and accused the party of cheating the people of the state.

Earlier in the day, Secretariat employees' associations met the chief minister and requested him to withdraw the notification. Chief Minister Sukhu assured them that the present government was committed to safeguarding the interests of employees, an official statement said.

A fresh notification was issued later in the day putting the earlier decision on hold.

Sukhu said that soon after assuming office, the present government restored the Old Pension Scheme for its employees and provided them various financial benefits from time to time.

Federation of Secretarial Employees Union Sanjeev Sharma said that the amendment in rules would affect about 14,000 employees, who would suffer a loss of between Rs 5,000 and 15,000 per month.

He said that the issue was discussed in detail with other employee outfits, following which the unions met the chief minister and pleaded for withdrawing the notification regarding the amended rules.

When no order was issued for withdrawing the September 6 notification, the employees marched to the CM's official residence, where Sukhu addressed the employees and said that the notification had been stayed.

State BJP general secretary and member of parliament Sikender Kumar expressed the hope that the notification that has been kept in abeyance "would never be implemented".

Demanding withdrawal of the notification, he said, "One thing has become clear that the government is 'anti-employees' and had taken many decisions detrimental to the interests of the employees.

"Whenever the employees opposed the decisions, cases were registered against them." The government wants to get the work done by putting pressure on employees, he said in a statement.

The section 7A provided that the posts/categories, whose Pay Band or Grade Pay was not re-revised after implementation of Revised (Pay) Rules, 2009, the pay in applicable Level in Pay Matrix as on January 1, 2016, shall be obtained by multiplying the existing basic pay as on December 31, 2015, by factor 2.59 while the multiplying factor would be 2.25 after omitting section 7A of the Rules.

The implication of the amended rules would be that the multiplying factor for revision of the pay will be 0.34 less, and the basic pay would have reduced proportionately after re-fixation. PTI BPL RT RT