Story so far: Seems low-cost carriers are doing a great
job. The percentage of people who fly has zoomed over the past few
years. As some have rightly said, the Government did not anticipate the
boom. So, it’s imperative that they be given all the help possible, to
survive the bad times. Companies can fly planes, but need ground
infrastructure to land them. You can’t be in air always, can you? Like
the aviation story, we now have government employees who are hoping to
benefit if the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations are implemented. But
why is there so much hue and cry from the public over this?
Episode 180
I
happened to visit a government office (please don’t ask the name) a few
days ago. Let’s say, it was a place where you have to furnish some
documents on yearly basis.
The
usual scene: Dusty files, and the tick-tick of keyboards of some
computers could be heard. We had some illustrious employees working
their way through piles of files, possibly a result of other
not-so-illustrious co-workers not doing work! Things were happening but
may be not at the speed one would expect.
But
as we stood in the queue, people, complaining as they were, started
talking about the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations. Thanks to 24X7
media, all sorts of rumours were reported earlier. Now, after Mr B. N.
Srikrishna presented his report, headlines such as “40 per cent pay hike
for babus” having been appearing at regular intervals. As my neighbour
Shanthi Srinivasan said, “Prices of things are going up and up….and now
these government employees will have such huge pay hikes. I am telling
you Swati, they do no work. Go and print this, if you can.”
No equality in hikes
A
lot of the blame has to be taken in the right spirit. Apart from some
secretaries and high-ranking officers, nobody in the lower bureaucracy
seems to be ‘very’ happy about the proposed pay hikes. Some who were
drawing Rs 40k+, will be drawing Rs 15k more while many who were drawing
Rs 5k+, will be drawing another Rs 1-2k, at the maximum. Central
government employees account for less than 1 per cent of the country’s
population; though it seems larger going by the hype over the Sixth
Central Pay Commission (SCPC) report last week.
“Today
people are so in tune with terms like taxpayers’ money and what is
being done to it. We, government employees, are taxpayers too. The last
Pay Commission was 12 years ago. Think about it. Apart from promotions,
no major pay hikes in all these years, . Why are eyebrows raised only
when Government gives salary hike to employees?” asks Mr Raghu
Santhanam, a government employee.
Public perception
Maybe
the public perception of employees not working enough. Some even have
businesses going while others just have a nice time. But that’s not the
point. Do we agree that some government employees are doing their work?
“As grudgingly as I have to, they do. Some, but not all. In that sense, a
pay hike is okay,” said Seshunandan, a non-government employee and the
chairperson of our locality’s resident welfare association.
The
inability to segregate the bad apples from the good is harming the
government. There are little mechanisms available to the public to gauge
the efficiency of government employees. “I agree that not all of them
are ‘ideal’ employees, but are they even treated like employees? At a
private company, you have so many things…even a career growth plan…what
do government employees have? Pension, security, respect…what?” asks
another employee.
Not a great workplace
But
that brings us to the root cause of all the problems. Is the government
a great place to work for? “My sister-in-law is Australian. My elder
brother went to Australia and now is settled there after marrying
Angela. Before marriage, when my father asked her what she did, you know
what she said? I work in the federal government she said proudly. How
many Indians would be as proud?” asks Lakshmi Sivaraman.
On
the other side, a lot of people are right in saying that one should do
one’s work, no matter what. Interferences, not-so-ideal work conditions,
de-motivating remarks and constant public scrutiny will and always
exist. A lot of the government employees actually work. That’s why may
be, things are improving, or showing a bit of promise.
“At
the end of the day Swati, the system can be as good as its constituents
… in this case the employees. The strikes, irregular office timings and
bad attitude do not help. That is why people are reacting to pay hikes
in this manner,” comments an HR executive, who hunts ‘heads’ for a
living.
Performance is relative and sometimes not
even a good measure. If it were so, then Wall Street CEOs, top
executives and market makers would not have received their fat bonuses
and perks, even as they indulged in wrong bets on real estate and
people’s ability to pay back. Now investment banks world over are going
through, possibly their worst patch ever, courtesy the SUB PRIME!
“It takes many people do the right thing but only a single individual
to do the wrong. Everybody is blamed if things go haywire. At the end of
the day, good employees should be rewarded and also encouraged. A pay
hike serves both the purposes well,” says V. Babu, a salary and tax
expert.
Measure performance
A
system that breeds inequality cannot be good. Sure, the bad apples
(employees) have to be identified and dealt with, but good ones should
be lauded. The Sixth Pay Commission says in its report thus: “A system
that primarily lays emphasis on delivery and end results and which
continuously rewards performance has been put in place by incorporating
features like Performance Related Incentive (PRI) and variable
increments in the basic scheme of pay scales.” These are welcome
changes. The Pay Commission report can be viewed at
http://india.gov.in/govt/report_index.php.
The PRIs
would go a long way in culling out who met their set out targets and who
didn’t. Pay out of incentives will also help in gauging how many
employees were doing their work efficiently.
The
government is not a moneymaking machine, driven solely by profit motive.
The employees should also be expected to toe the same line. As a
society too we need to change. Celebrating salaries of CEOs and wealth
of billionaires cannot be a national past-time. Whenever we compare
ourselves with others, there is bound to be conflicts and frustrations
creep into the smaller guys.
“Government employees
have a responsibility. Matured ones will neither shudder away from the
ignominy or public wrath nor will they accept that standards of work
followed are not up to the mark,” said Professor Dalip Sahai, a former
bureaucrat who has now moved into a private company, after retirement.
Just
as I write, I see news related to defence personnel demanding more
hikes flashing on the TV. Pay hikes cannot substitute real work. They
can only encourage it. But again, giving hikes to undeserving candidates
rarely serves as an example, does it?
Readers can
write back with their views on the recommendations of the Pay
Commission. Is there a case for too much, too less or is there no case
to give a pay hike at all? Have there been pay cuts or does the system
isn’t well prepared enough to recognise shortfalls? Mail answers
mentioning names along with addresses to swatilistening@gmail.com.
Responses to Episode-179 on the issue: ‘High flying dreams for ‘aam aadmi’ (Business Line, March 24, 2008).
Since
I had the opportunity to travel a bit, I have seen quite a few airports
of the world. I totally agree with the Frenchman.... we have a very
long way to go. Whether we would be able to reach the global standard
itself is a question mark. There are policies, recommendations, etc.,
but where is the passion to establish world-class airports that is
user-friendly?
I happened to transit at Taiwan for
an hour. Amazing! It was squeaky clean. They even had a private infant
nursing station with all the necessary convenience. If a small country
can have a world class airport why cannot India?
Airports
are the windows to a country. It is the first impression a foreigner
gets when he lands. I could not help but compare when I reached Chennai.
Restrooms stink and well everything was below standard. Sometimes I
wonder what our policymakers think when they visit other countries.
Don’t they ever think that we should have such world-class airports?
Priya Ganesh, Singapore
Full
credit goes to low-cost carriers for fulfilling the common man’s dream
of flying. These LCCs have revolutionised air travel. It appears that
the Government did not anticipate this boom in the aviation industry.
That is probably why all airports in the country look like inter-State
bus terminals. Over-crowding and congestion have become a regular
feature. It is time the Government developed its infrastructure on war
footing to tackle the present crisis.
V. Ramasamy, Noida
SwatiListening@gmail.com Blog at: http://Swati-CA.blogspot.com
(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated March 31, 2008)
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