Telangana's 2nd PRC to Meet Employees Unions to Discuss Salary Hikes

The commission invited representations in writing from all the unions last month. The deadline to submit their representations ended on March 4. Official sources said the commission had received nearly 3,000 representations from all the unions.

The commission will now hold separate meetings with unions and discuss their representations. The unions will be asked to justify their demand on salary hikes and quantum of hike.

Some unions said that the demands that they were making on salary hikes were already being implemented in a few states. The commission asked unions to submit details in support of their arguments.

The commission will submit a report to the state government recommending a quantum of salary hike after going through the feedback received from unions.

The previous BRS government constituted a second PRC on October 2, 2023, ahead of Assembly polls in November. Former finance secretary N. Siva Sankar was appointed as the chairman of the second PRC and former IAS officer B Ramaiah was appointed as a member.

The previous BRS government constituted the first PRC in 2018 under the chairmanship of CR Biswal. It submitted a report in December 2020 recommending just 7.5 per cent fitment (hike on basic pay) which fuelled sharp protests from employees unions that demanded a hike from 25 per cent to 50 per cent.

However, after a series of deliberations with unions, then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced a fitment of 30 per cent to over nine lakh government employees and pensioners with effect from April 2020. He also announced the highest-ever fitment of 43 per cent in 2014 while implementing the 10th PRC constituted in the combined Andhra Pradesh.

The first PRC tenure ended in July 2022 but the previous BRS government delayed the appointment of the second PRC by more than a year by appointing it in October 2023.