Why is Annual Increment denied to employees retiring in June?

Until 01.01.2006, the date of implementing employee’s annual increment was fixed on the basis of his/her date of appointment or promotion option. After the 6th CPC, it was decided that 1st July of each year would be the uniform date of implementation of annual increment for all Central Government employees.

Employees who are appointed after January 1st are not eligible for that year’s annual increment on July 1. They qualify for annual increment only the next year.

The revised pay rules said that “If an employee is on leave or is availing joining time on the 1st of July, the benefit of annual increment in pay will be drawn only from the date on which he resumes duty and not from the first of July. Each year, employees who retire in the month of June are not given the annual increment of the year since they do not report to work on 1st July. Only those employees who resume duty on July 1st are eligible to receive the annual increment. Or, the day they report back to work is taken as the date for implementing the annual increment. Since there are no possibilities for the retired employees to return to work, they are not considered as qualified to receive the annual increment.

The revised pay rules states that only those who have been receiving the same basic pay continuously for 6 months are considered as qualified for annual increment. According to the another rule of qualification for increment, the person should have complete one year in service after receiving the annual increment. Therefore, despite being qualified, these employees are denied their annual increment.

There is an order that states that those who retire on July 1st should complete the retirement formalities in the month of June.

Instead of strictly looking into such technicalities, it would be a nice gesture on the part of the Government to extend the benefits of annual increment to those senior employees too who retire from service in the month of June.