Overtime Allowance (OTA) : Report of the Committee Allowances – 7th Pay Commission

Overtime Allowance (OT) : Report of the Committee Allowances – 7th Pay Commission

Overtime Allowance (Para 8.17.97)

Existing Provisions: Overtime Allowance (OTA) is granted to government employees for performing duties beyond the designated working hours. Presently, OTA is paid in several Ministries / Departments up to a certain level at varying rates.

Recommendations of 7th CPC: OTA should be abolished (except for operational staff and industrial employees who are governed by statutory provisions). In case the Government decides to continue with OTA for those categories of staff for which it is not a statutory requirement, then the rates of OTA for such staff should be increased by 50 percent from their current levels.

Demands:

I. D/o Posts: This allowance should continue and the rates may be increased to ₹100 per hour maximum of three hours in a day and it may be linked to DA.

II. National Council (Staff Side), JCM: The rates of this allowance were revised in the year 1987 and after 7th CPC, one hour wage of an MTS is ₹75, but the rate of one hour OTA is ₹15.85. Therefore, it was requested that the rates of OTA, wherever sanctioned must be based upon the actual basic pay of the entitled employee. It was also demanded by the JCM that OTA has to be twice the hourly duty of the concerned employee.

Analysis and Recommendations of the Committee:
The Committee notes that the 7th CPC in its report at Para 8.17.96 has mentioned that 3rd, 4th , 5 th and 6th CPC have recommended that OTA should be abolished except where it is statutory requirement. However, OTA has not been discontinued as per the recommendations of earlier CPCs.

The Committee is of the view that given the rise in pay over the years, the recommendations of the 7th CPC to discontinue OTA for categories other than operational staff and industrial employees who are governed by statutory provisions may be accepted. All Ministries / Departments will need to prepare a list of those coming under the category of „operational staff‟ on its rolls and pay OTA at applicable rates. The rates of the allowance may not be revised and the payment be strictly linked to biometric attendance.

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