8th Pay Commission: Big news for central govt employees. Central government employees are awaiting the recommendations of the Eighth Pay Commission. Amidst this wait, various demands are being made by central employees’ organizations. In this context, the drafting committee of the National Council-Joint Consultative Machinery (Staff Side) NC-JCM has made several important demands related to the 8th Pay Commission, which, if accepted, will greatly benefit central government pensioners. Let’s explore in detail what the Pay Commission has to say for pensioners.

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These demands include a uniform fitment factor for central government employees and pensioners, an increase in the gratuity amount from Rs2.5 million to Rs 7.5 million, the implementation of “One Rank, One Pension,” a reduction in the pension commutation period to 11 years, and the integration of dearness relief (DR) amounts of 25% or more into basic pay. Furthermore, the demands also include enhanced benefits for pensioners under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS).

Uniform fitment factor should be applied

The National Council-Joint Consultative Machinery (Staff Side) NC-JCM has recommended applying a uniform fitment factor for employees and pensioners in the 8th Pay Commission. Recommending a fitment factor of 3.833, the draft committee has recommended that the fitment factor be the same for employees and pensioners. It also demanded that pensioners receive arrears from January 1, 2026.

It should be noted that the term of the 7th Pay Commission ended on December 31, 2025. The committee has recommended a similar scheme for all central government pensioners, modeled on the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme. This means that if the recommendations are implemented, employees who retired before 2016, those who retired after, and those who will retire in the future, will all receive the same pension, provided they held the same rank at the time of retirement.

The committee recommended that the 8th Pay Commission should abolish the National Pension System (NPS) and the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and reinstate the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). The central government launched the NPS on January 1, 2004, while the UPS came into effect on April 1, 2025.

The maximum gratuity limit for central government employees has been raised. The demand is to increase this limit from Rs 2.5 million to Rs 7.5 million. It further states that gratuity should be calculated based on 25 effective working days per month instead of 30.

-The 8th Pay Commission has suggested that the full pension be increased from 50% to 67% of the last drawn salary or the average of the earnings of the last 10 months.