The Andhra Pradesh state government has announced 3.1% fitment which is 1.6% less than the recommended, setting aside the recommendations of Ashutosh Mishra committee on new pay scale. This is a huge shock for the APSRTC employees, uttered by the state government.
According to the orders, there will be 32 grades and 83 stages. There will be no grade pay for the APSRTC transport employees as well, as there is no grade pay for the state government employees. In January 2020, RTC employees were merged as the Public Transport Department. But prior to this, the RTC employees Revised Pay Scales were effective from April 2017 and 25% fitment was being implemented for the employees.
The public transport department was supposed to get the recommended 27% fitment as suggested by the Mishra committee, with the merger. Already, the government has fixed 23% fitment to government employees and hence the same is being imposed on PTD employees. This resulted in the reduction of the fitment by 1.6%.
The recent orders announced for PTD employees are the new basic pay will be used for fixing salary under the State Government Revised Pay Scales 2022. Employees, who joined services between July 1st, 2018 and January 1st 2020, primarily, the pay as on the date of joining shall be finalised notionally in the applicable pay scale of RPS 2022. The PTD employees will be offered the option of sticking in EPF-95 or contribution based pension scheme. Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance and City Compensatory Allowance with effect from January 1, 2020 will be on par with the state government employees.