New
Delhi: Seventh pay commission is likely to ask the government to
consider allowing disabled and women central government employees to
work from home.
Seventh Central Pay Commission Chairman Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur
The
commission may recommend government to ask Information and Technology
department, whether it is possible to have systems in place for
monitoring and supervising work being done remotely by disabled and
women central government employees .
“Allowing
disabled and women central government employees a choice in where and
how they work can increase employee loyalty and job satisfaction, and
the government needs to apply it for a big win to boost their
confidence, which will also give the productivity,” said a pay panel
official.
The
studies revealed those disabled and women employees who have the option
of working outside of the office also reported somewhat lower levels of
stress and exhaustion. And studies have suggested that employees tend
to get higher performance evaluations.
Allowing
employees to work away from a government office means increased
opportunities for those women and those persons with disabilities. It
can also help the environment, as the employees are able to eliminate
lengthy commutes.
The work from home filtered into jobs that have little to no stress and minimal travel.
At
present, the strength of disabled employees in the total workforce of
the central government is 9,339, which constitutes 0.3 per cent of the
total staff strength of 29.59 lakh, according to an RTI reply to The
Indian Express from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Women
employment under central government has been estimated to the tune of
3.37 lakh, which is 10.93 percent of the total regular central
government employment, according to census of central government
employees as on March 31, 2011.
“We
are looking at whether it is technologically possible to allow disabled
and women employees for working from home,” said the official.
“A
need was felt to provide work from home facility to persons with
disabilities and women to enable them to effectively discharge their
duties.,” he added.
The
government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to
revise the pay scale of its employees and often states also implement
the panel’s recommendations after some modifications.
Headed
by Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, the four-member Commission was appointed
in February 2014 and the commission will hand over its recommendations
to government within December 31, 2015.
As
part of the exercise, the current Pay Commission holds discussions with
various stakeholders, including organisations, federations, groups
representing civil employees as well as defence services.
The
Sixth Pay Commission was implemented with effect from January 1, 2006,
the fifth from January 1, 1996 and the fourth from January 1, 1986. The
Seventh Pay Commission will be implemented with effect from January 1,
2016
Regards,
E.R.Iyer
