Centre junks ‘Grade Pay’ for ‘Pay Matrix’

The DoPT has asked ministries to reflect the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.

The phrase “pay band and grade pay”, coined during the British Raj to determine the salaries of the bureaucrats is history. Come September, they will be replaced with the corporate lingo — “level in the pay matrix.”

The change comes the Department of Personal and Training (DoPT) issued a notification on Tuesday to all central government departments, asking them to change service and recruitment rules to reflect recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission.

Introducing the changed nomenclature, the notification said: “Consequential amendment in the existing service rules and recruitment rules shall be made by the ministries or departments by substituting the existing pay band and grade pay by the new pay structure i.e. ‘level in the pay matrix’ straightaway without making a reference to the Department of Personnel and Training and Union Public Service Commission.”

The Department has called for a meeting of the concerned officials of various departments from October 3 to 14 to take stock of the latest position of the amendment in Service Rules/Recruitment Rules. All central government departments have been asked to set up committees to look into various pay related anomalies arising out of the implementation of the Pay Commission’s recommendations.

The change in nomenclature implies a significantly new approach to fixing salaries and allowances for bureaucrats. Essentially, creating a salary increase matrix doesn’t have to involve complicated math or nuanced employee performance forms. With three salary columns and performance levels, pay matrix would involve creation of a sliding scale for employees to continue to earn higher pay.

Earlier notification

As employees gain experience, levels of assessing employee performance would become more vigorous while avoiding addition of more complex elements to the salary increase matrix. That is the objective of the pay matrix.

An earlier notification had said in cases where deputation is a method of recruitment, the field of selection for deputation should reflect the corresponding ‘level in the pay matrix.’