Govt agrees to 2% seniority allowance, 5% annual hike
Shillong, Aug 20: The All Meghalaya SSA Non-Teaching Staff Association (AMSSANTSA) on Tuesday called off their 21-day sit-in after the government approved their demands for rationalisation and enhancement of their salaries.
AMSSANTSA president Jennifer J Synrem said they called off their indefinite demonstration since the government has accepted their demands.
She informed that the government has agreed to a 2% seniority allowance and 5% annual increment but turned down their demand for 80% salary hike.
“Unlike in the past we will now be getting salary based on seniority basis. It was really discouraging since the newly appointed staff are drawing the same salary as the staff employed 18 years ago,” she said.
The new pay scale will be implemented from April 1 this year, she said, while expressing gratitude to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for listening to their demands.
She also said they have decided to reject the government’s proposal for 25% salary enhancement since almost half of the non-teaching staff have not been included under the proposal.
Meanwhile, Commissioner and Secretary, Vijay Mantri who heads the Rationalisation Committee of Salaries for all Samagra Shiksha (non-academic) staff at state, district and block levels, said the state government has approved the committee’s recommendations on the new base pay which will be implemented from April 1 this year.
The committee also recommended that the base pay will be reviewed after five years.
The state government has also directed the State Project Director, SSA to consider the recommendation of Rationalisation Committee that an annual increment of 5 percent should be considered on the base pay given each year starting from 2025-26.
Besides this, the committee also recommended that the available database for all staff should be thoroughly validated from the district offices before sending the final proposal.
At the same time, the committee recommended that any left out category of non-teaching staff will also be taken into account before putting up the final proposal to the department.
Further, the committee also recommended that SSA has also been directed to explore the possibility of enrolling the non-teaching staff in EPFO for Provident Fund benefits besides arranging their inclusion under the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS).