For a few weeks now, reports have been
surfacing that the Centre is giving serious thoughts about reducing retirement
age of Central Government employees from 60
to 58.
The truth behind these series of rumours
couldn’t be found yet. There is no official stand on this either.
The news was first published by popular
English daily newspaper. Without any official source to confirm it, the article
analyzed the issue from various perspectives. It was presented in a manner that
was acceptable by most.
This was followed by an order of the Railway
department that was released on Facebook. In the order, the Railway Board had
demanded an explanation from their zonal railways over the number of retiring
employees (safety category) if the age of the retirement is reduced to 58.
Another event that gave credibility to the
issue was the reduction of retirement age of state government employees from 60
to 58 in Haryana, a state ruled by BJP.
When the news of reducing the retirement age
first surfaced, it caught employees by surprise and shock, because, for a while
now, there were talks of actually raising the retirement age from 60 to 62! The
current talks of reducing the retirement age have created a palpable sense of
panic among employees over the age of 55.
There are many who are for and against the
news, the strongest opinion in favour of age reduction being that it would help
ease the unemployment problem.
Those who are looking for their first jobs
would be happy to support any kind of age reduction – be it 58 or even 50! This
is simply because they are desperate to get into a job. But the truth is – the
attitude will definitely change once they get a job.
Each year, about 1.75 lakh employees retire
from Central Government services. The claim that if an additional 3.5 lakh
employees retire in a particular year, the country’s unemployment problem could
be solved is unacceptable.
After reducing the retirement age, the number
of new retirees is going to stabilize again. Will the Government resort to such
tactics of reducing the retirement age again and again?
Moreover, it is also true that handing out
retirement benefits to 5 lakh employees at a time is going to drain the
Government’s financial resources.
Another important reason to support the
reduction of retirement age is the claim that it would bring younger blood into
the various central government organizations.
The fact is – in the past eight years, the
number of central government employees all over the country has continued to be
around 30 lakhs. Supporters of the “younger blood” theory couldn’t possibly
know that nearly 50% of these employees are youngsters. To be accurate, the
employees who had joined the central government services after 01.01.2000 now
account for nearly 70% of the central government workforce.
Another argument in support of this move
claims that it is the Government’s attempt to cut down unplanned expenses.
In the past few years, the Government had
implemented a number of cost-cutting measures. It is not clear why the
Government, that had remained blind to this fact, has suddenly seen the light.
Ironically, such a move would only worsen the economic crisis.
Finally, what is the motive behind circulating
such stories?
Is it to simply wipe out talks about increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62?
Is it to simply wipe out talks about increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62?
One has to wait and watch.
There is a hope that Modi Government wouldn’t risk weakening the
Central Government offices’ functioning by sending home 5 lakh experienced and
trained personnel all of a sudden.
And, let us hope that the Government
recognizes the importance and value of 30 years of work experience of each of
these employees before discarding them.
