At first glance, the answer to the question seems obvious: Would you rather have a nice big house or a smooth pothole-free road? The house, of course!
What with the economic downturn, private sector jobs are drying up. The Indian Governemnt, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be in the least bothered about this development, atleast as far as recruitment is concerned.
As part of a generation that looked down upon PSU jobs as stodgy file-pushing and intellectually insulting (as compared to the better-paying and challenging private sector jobs), this development raises uncomfortable questions. With campus placements round the corner, three magic words are being bandied around - Sixth Pay Commission: the manna from heaven, the bright spot that makes it look less of a compromise than it actually is, and the plaintive reason for accepting a job in a PSU. (The real reason is: there isn't any other, baby!)
Now, all that money for the hike has to come from somewhere, right? And it doesn't require a genius to see that the governement is not richer this year than last year. Neither will it dare to touch the "Social Sector" budget - yup, the same one for which the CAG has mentioned that the governement has not used upto Rs.33000 crore of funds from international agencies for social development. So that leaves us with the next biggest: the Infrastructure Fund.
Stop constructing that flyover and let's re-lay this road next year instead of this year. We are the Government. We care for you, the aam aadmi. See how we are paying you more?
I strongly feel that the Pay Commission revision should be made performance-based. The PSU can be measured on a number of parameters: increase in revenue, customer/client feedback, employee satisfaction etc. The appraisal process can be conducted by an independent party and the pay hike will depend on the individual performance. I'm sure my solution is far from paractical and is riddled with problems, but what with the brightest minds joining PSUs today, some might actually end up staying and becoming much-needed change agents.
Hail PSUs!
3 comments:
1. The Sixth Pay Commission is for Central Government employees and not PSU officials.
2. For PSU, there is the Second Pay Revision Committee.
3. The PSUs have to bear the pay hike from their own operations, without any support from the government, or your tax money.
4. Most PSUs took tax payer money only once, when they were set up.
5. They have since returned the money many times over, through dividends, taxes, disinvestments etc.
6. Even today no PSU, which is planning the miniscule hike proposed, is seeking a bailout, unlike private behemoths who seek subsidies / bailouts / tax shields, the moment the weather gets rough.
7. Yes, the pay hike is miniscule. PSU people would be glad to get the pay that was falsely bandied about during the oil strike.
8. Even before the downturn, some from the good campuses preferred stodgy PSU jobs over private challenging jobs.
Ok.. to begin with, I LIKE PSUs ! They rock ! :P
And I don't like your idea of pay revisions being performance based :P I want my money, irrespective of performance (especially when they are willing to give it to me that way :D)
@Abhinav: Speak for yourself! :D
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