8th Pay Commission: Employee Unions To Meet And Decide Common Demands Memorandum

The 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) is to provide its recommendations for revision in salary, dearness allowance, and more by the middle of next year. The recommendations will affect all the central government employees and subsequently the State government employees. This time, the Commission asked all the stakeholders, including employees, pensioners, individuals, employee associations, government ministries, and departments, among others, to send their response to the pay commission directly. While anyone can send a response online to the Commission, the National Council (Staff side) of the Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) and other employees’ associations held a meeting on February 25, 2026, to discuss their issues and demands from the 8th CPC.

The meeting discussed the issues, ranging from salary increments, reinstatement of the old pension scheme (OPS), guaranteeing a minimum of five promotions to employees, and so on. Per a report by the Economic Times, the All-India Defence Employees’ Federation (AIDEF), employee associations of railways, defence, postal services, the income tax department, and many others were also present in the meeting.

They raised their concerns and different demands to discuss in the common meeting to work out a final structure of demands to be sent to the 8th Pay Commission. One of the major concerns, reportedly, that was discussed in the meeting was the difference between the minimum and maximum salary of government employees and suggested to raise a demand that the difference should not be more than 10 times. As of now (in the 7th pay commission), the difference is 13 times, which means the maximum basic pay is 13 times higher than the minimum basic pay.

Further, an increase in the family unit from three members to five members, for salary calculation, was discussed so that parents can be included in it. Per the report, on March 10, 2026, the associations will meet again to decide the common memorandum to be sent to the 8th CPC in the next 1-2 weeks after finalisation.

The fitment factor is one of the widely speculated factors that the 8th Pay Commission will recommend, keeping in mind several factors. In the 7th Pay Commission, the fitment factor was fixed at 2.57, which made the minimum salary increase from Rs 7,000 to RS 18,000. This time, the demands are to increase the fitment factor to at least 2.86. This factor directly impacts the basic pay and all the related benefits.

Notably, anyone, including individuals, can send their response directly to the 8th CPC online on its official portal. The CPC has issued an 18-question questionnaire on the portal. The detailed questions are regarding salary, how much should be increased, how it will affect non-beneficiaries, dearness allowance, and many more.