Shillong, Aug 20: The All Meghalaya SSA Non-Teaching Staffs’ Association (AMSSANTSA) on Tuesday called off their indefinite sit-in-demonstration after 21 days following state government’s approval of the rationalisation and enhancement of their salaries. Accordingly, the fresh base pay will be effective from April 1, 2024.

The approval was given after a meeting of the Rationalisation Committee headed by the Commissioner & Secretary, Education Vijay Mantri, held on Monday (August 19).

The state government has approved the recommendation of the committee that the fresh proposed base pay is to be established from April 1, 2024, Mantri said on Tuesday.

“All the existing staff shall be considered for 2% seniority allowance for each year of service rendered as on April 1, 2024,” he said.

The committee had also recommended that the available database for all staff should be thoroughly validated from the district offices before sending the final proposal.

Any left out category of non-teaching staff should also be taken into account before putting up the final proposal to the department.

The state government has also directed the State Project Director, SSA to consider the recommendation of Rationalisation Committee that “an annual increment of 5 percent should be considered on the base pay given each year starting from 2025-26.”

It said that the base pay set from April 1, 2024 should be reviewed after a minimum of 5 years.

SPD, SSA has also been directed to explore the possibility of enrolling SSA non-teaching staff in EPFO for Provident Fund benefits besides arranging for SSA non-teaching staff to be included in the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS).

Non-teaching SSA staff are often assigned duties by various other departments without additional support or honorarium for their extra work and related travel. In this regard, it was decided that SPD, SSA should issue instructions to other departments.

SPD, SSA has been asked to ensure the regular release of contingency/office expenses and funds for items such as furniture besides adequate working space/buildings should be provided at the Cluster and Blocl levells for BRPs, CRPs and other SSA staff.

Welcoming the government’s decision, president of the association, Jennyfer Synrem, said, “We have decided to call off our indefinite sit-in-demonstration after achieving our demands which include 2% seniority allowances and 5% annual increment. Although, we are not getting 80% salary enhancement but we are satisfied in view of the fact that the government has decided to streamline the system.”

“The constitution of the Rationalisation Committee, in which we are also members, has to a great extent addressed the gap in the pay structure. We are now getting different salary based on seniority unlike in the past where a newly joined staff would be drawing the same salary like those, who have been working for 18 years,” she said.

Asked, Synrem said, “We are happy that the new pay will be implemented with effect from April 1, 2024. We thank the government under the leadership of the chief minister Conrad K Sangma for addressing our issues through the committee.”

“Earlier, we have rejected the government’s decision to grant 25% salary enhancement because almost half of the non-teaching staff were not included under the proposal and it was not justified because there has been no salary enhancement for the past 8 years,” she stated.

“In view of the government’s decision to address our issues, we need not come out to the street to protest anymore,” she further added.

Read: NEC official arrested on charges of sexually assaulting coworker in Shillong

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