Ending a prolonged standoff with its employees, the Punjab government on Friday agreed to release two instalments of Dearness Allowance (DA) of 4 per cent each, providing a combined 8 per cent increase to eligible employees.
The enhanced DA, retrospectively applicable from July 2023, will be paid on October 1 along with the September salary. The decision came after an hour-long meeting between Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Cabinet ministers Aman Arora and Baljit Kaur, and representatives of 12 employee unions under the Sanjha Mulazim Manch.
Arora said the decision would impose an additional burden of about Rs. 231 crore on the state exchequer. The government described the payment as a goodwill measure while broader issues concerning employees remain under discussion.
Gurnam Singh Virk, convener of the Sanjha Mulazim Manch, said the Chief Minister had agreed to hold another meeting in the first week of October to discuss the unions’ remaining demands. These include restoration of the Old Pension Scheme, uniform pay structures for employees recruited after July 17, 2020, and payment of full salaries during the probation period.
The agreement does not affect ongoing legal proceedings concerning earlier DA arrears and other salary-related disputes. The government has challenged the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s August 3 order directing it to clear pending DA dues dating back to 2016 within 15 days, failing which an 18 per cent annual interest would be payable. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court.
The latest agreement follows the government’s September 4 decision to raise DA from 42 per cent to 60 per cent for around 85,000 employees recruited after July 17, 2020. The move was intended to address pay disparities between employees recruited under different pay structures. Of these, around 71,000 were recruited by the present AAP government and about 14,000 during the previous Congress regime.
The government’s latest move comes after weeks of escalating confrontation with employee organisations over DA arrears and other service-related demands. The standoff intensified after a proposed meeting between Mann and employees in Jalandhar on August 27 was cancelled after the Chief Minister insisted that the protests be called off before negotiations.
The unions subsequently announced mass casual leave on September 8 and threatened further protests, including a mock session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on September 30 and demonstrations outside ministers’ residences in October.
Satish Rana, who represents pensioners in the forum, said the government had also agreed to withdraw disciplinary notices issued to employees over their absence on August 27 and September 8.
Sukhchain Singh Khehra, president of the Civil Secretariat Employees Union, said employees had accepted the immediate DA relief while keeping negotiations open on unresolved issues. The forum, however, rejected the government’s proposal to file an affidavit before the High Court stating that all disputes had been settled.
The government had earlier cited the financial implications of pending employee demands, while unions maintained that long-standing DA dues and pay anomalies needed to be addressed. Friday’s agreement provides immediate relief on one of the key demands, while leaving the larger dispute over arrears and service conditions for further negotiations and legal proceedings.
