All India NABARD Officers’ Association (AINBOA) has given a full day strike call on 16 December 2022 in protest against the anomalies in the wage revision created by an order issued by the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
They have now been joined by the retired staff in support for the cause since the wage revision holds implications for the future.
The officers of NABARD had been on agitation ever since the DFS order was issued on 14 September 2022 followed by the Administrative Circular on 21 September 2022 to implement the order. After many representations, and rounds of dialogues with the officials of DFS over last two months (as there is no regular Chairman in NABARD at present and an Additional Secretary of DFS is in interim charge since August 01, 2022), they are left with no other choice but to go on strike which will be followed by a march to Parliament and hunger strike.
First, the order introduced dual and differentiated pay for the same cadre of officers – higher for those who had come from Reserve Bank of India at the formation of NABARD in 1982 and lower for those directly recruited by NABARD. One of the allowances reduced is Grade Allowance which is paid as per the grade of an officer. However, according to the DFS order, officers in lower grades are drawing higher grade allowance than officers in higher grade thereby making a mockery of the nomenclature “grade”.
This is in contravention to ‘equal pay for equal work’ in the same organization, settled in 1986 in NABARD.
It is pertinent to mention here that both the categories of officers – those who had come from Reserve Bank of India in 1982 and those recruited by NABARD – had been getting the same pay and allowances over last 35 years through seven settlements.