As per the latest 7th Pay Commission (PC) of 2018, Periodical Increment (PI) of Govt. servants falls twice in a year – either on 1st of January, drawn in February or on 1st of July, drawn in August. By way of Pay Fixation as per 7th PC of 2018, most of the employees receive their PI on 1st of July.
In this manner PI of most of the employees working in the Govt. Departments of J&K has fallen due on 1st of July 2023, which will be drawn in the month of August. It means from 1st of July they shall receive the additional 3% increment on their Basic Pay, just because of the satisfactory performance that they showed in the preceding year.
Just like the Functional and Non-Functional Promotions – which include promotions like higher posts, time bound, stop gap, etc., PI is also a kind of promotion received by the employees, every year. However, the PI is always subject to the satisfactory performance. Govt. holds the authority to stop the PI, if the employee has not performed up to the prescribed level.
In context to the Human Resource Development (HRD) this sounds a very good scheme for raising the morale of highly performing employees and for low performing employees, it is a logical yardstick to persuade them to perform up to and over the standard level.
But the irony is that neither the Govt. nor the employees celebrate this kind of promotion. It seems quite genuine that on such occasions, Govt. should organize appropriate programmes to remind their employees their commitment and responsibilities.
And in the same way employees should thank the Govt. and assure her for performing their best. Such kind of professional culture is however lacking in the Govt. sector.
Another side of this picture is that, it is unlikely that 100% of employees can perform up to the required level. Such kind of perfectionist atmosphere is inconceivable not just in the Govt. sector, but in others sectors as well. Which means, there must be a few percentage of employees whose PI needs to be stopped for not performing as per the norms.
On the contrary, there occurs no such attempt wherein the PI of an employee is stopped. It clearly reflects that the higher authorities are lenient towards their subordinates. If rule is allowing them to stop the increment of an employee for not performing well, there is no reason, even on account of sympathy for promoting them to higher grades.
Many a time, the controlling officer complains about the dismal attitude of their employees. The controlling officer, however, can go to any extent as per the norms against such employees. But given the culture of various complications, it forces the officer to subside the matter. Many officers, who know social psychology, use good method of teaching, training, pursuance, etc. for keeping their employees motivated.
In this context, to promote professional and good work culture in Govt. offices, there are a number of highly performing techniques by virtue of which people could be provided with better and timely services. It only demands if the higher offices are really serious about the work culture in their offices. Easy to implement and without any distress, the technique of stopping the PI can be very much useful.
