Even as the Government of Andhra Pradesh has announced its decision to go ahead and implement through an Ordinance the Guaranteed Pension Scheme (GPS), calling it a viable middle path between the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), the representatives of the government employees’ unions are gearing up for a ‘chalo Vijayawada’ protest on September 1 with the slogan, ‘Why not OPS’.
The meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) with the representatives of various employee unions on August 29 remained inconclusive with the Ministers insisting on implementation of the GPS, which they argued was a better option than the market-linked CPS and that it would ensure 50% of the last drawn pay as pension to the employees.
Unions divided
Leaders of the employees’ associations are divided over the issue.
While the leaders of unions such as the A.P. Joint Action Committee (JAC) Amaravati and the APNGOs’ Association have agreed for the GPS with reluctance, their counterparts from the Andhra Pradesh Government Employees’ Association (APGEA), the A.P. Secretariat CPS Association, and various teacher unions are opposed to the government’s proposal.
The employees share a common feeling that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has let them down by going back from his promise to restore the OPS.
The employees’ associations have squarely rejected the GPS, which, the Ministers say, will remove the uncertainty of not knowing what one will receive as pension from a fully market-linked CPS.
‘Jugglery of numbers’
The employee unions counter the argument saying that the GPS is no better than CPS, and recall a similar plan to guarantee 50% of the pension recommended by the Thakkar Committee during the previous TDP term.
“The employees had rejected it as Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was then the Opposition leader, promised that he would restore the OPS within one week of coming to power,” say leaders of the A.P. Secretariat CPS Employees’ Association Kotla Rajesh and N. Prasad.
Like the CPS, the GPS involves payment of 10% of basic pay by both the government and the employee.
“The government is trying to project GPS as a 65% rise in the pension over the estimated 20% return on their contribution under the CPS. This is nothing but jugglery of numbers,” say the employee unions.
Teachers’ call for unity
Leaders of various teacher unions, who had boycotted the talks on GPS and slammed the government for its “unilateral decision on GPS” without discussing the issue with the stakeholders, have urged teachers across the State to participate in the proposed ‘chalo Vijayawada’.
Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation president Ch. Manjula and general secretary K. Bhanu Murthy, United Teachers’ Federation president N. Venkateswarlu, State Teachers’ Union president L. Sai Srinivas, Andhra Pradesh Primary Teachers’ Association president B. Ganapathi Rao and others said that they would not accept the GSP under any circumstances.
They said some union leaders were trying to hurl allegations at teachers who were fighting for their rights, and urged everybody to come under single umbrella and take the fight to a logical end.
