All India Naval Technical Supervisory Staff Association meeting with 7th CPC and presentation i.r.o. technical Supervisory Cadre

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All India Naval Technical Supervisory Staff Association

The All India Naval Technical Supervisory Staff Association is one of the oldest recognized service association since 1949, functioning through its’ 03 divisional offices and about 25 branch offices in Ministry of Defense viz. Naval Dockyards (Mumbai, Visakhapatnam & Kochi), NSRY (Karwar), Naval Armament Depots, Warship and Submarine Overseeing Teams, training establishments, Repair Organization/Yards under the Navy and represents about 4000 cadre strength. The Technical Supervisory Staff is a very vital link between the top management and the work force. They are responsible for getting the job done from the limited work force by understanding the tasks and goals of their respective organizations and translating them in the form of words and instructions easily understood by the skilled, semi skilled and unskilled workers. The work arena of these naval organizations relates directly to the Defense Preparedness of the country and they feel proud that they work for those, who fence our water borders and sacrifice their lives for the nation. As entered into the glorious 65th year on 09th Oct 2013, we remain committed to play a key role to achieve new horizons in the field of repair and maintenance, facing all the challenges in the changed global scenario due to the  liberalized economy .

Naval Dockyards and all other aforesaid establishments are responsible for Repair, Inspection / Quality assurance of all Naval Ships/Submarines which are held with the Indian Navy. Naval Dockyards and NSRYs are dedicated to achieve the Quality Refits of Naval Ships, Submarines and undertake repairs, Modification, Installations and Alteration & Addition of various mechanical/ electrical / Weapon systems, which involve high standards of engineering application in the field of Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical, Computer, Instrumentation, and Control Engineering. In addition, NADs are responsible for maintenance, repair and issue of sophisticated variety of Naval Armaments / Weapons such as missiles, torpedoes, mines, guns and rocket launchers and small arms. Dedicated facilities and industrial manpower have been provided in the depots for performance of these activities. 

Ever since the Country’s independence the Dockyards, NSRYs and other installations of Indian Navy have undergone considerable functional changes in the form of technology, essential repairs and quality assurance of various classes of ships, which suit the modern warfare requirements. Modification of various ships and submarines  have been regular phenomenal tasks undertaken by the Dockyards and NSRYS. Conversion of ships from one class to another has been undertaken by the Dockyards and NSRYs. Another important functional aspect of these installations is the manufacturing of essential spares required for refit (which were being imported from overseas) resulting in considerable saving in foreign exchange. It goes to the credit of the Civilian Technical supervisors and their staffs  of the Dockyard that they are able to meet these commitments quite successfully. The very fact that even quite old ships of the fleet are still being maintained and kept in sea-worthy condition, bears ample testimony to the technical skill of the Naval Dockyard staff. It is worthwhile to remember that refit cost of the ships at all the Naval Dockyards and NSRYs, is perhaps the lowest in the world, the repairs being carried out at in specified standard. One of the main contributing factors for the low refit cost being low wages for the employees. 

The persisting tendency to categories Naval Dockyards and NSRYs as purely repair organizations is not warranted by the present functional activities, with particular aspect to the indigenous manufacture of spares. Moreover most modern and methodical Production, Planning and control wings have been set up in the Dockyards and NSRYs. The Boiler Erection Projects and Armament repair facilities are yet another Production wings. It is not illogical to argue that every major refit of a warship, which calls forth most up-to-date know-how and skill in all branches of engineering and which entails a multitude of co-ordinate activities of a most complex nature is nothing short of ‘Production’. In fact the mass production of an item or equipment for which a design has been perfected is a less difficult task  as compared to the major refit of a warship. 

At this stage it would be of interesting to compare the work structure of one more establishment under the Ministry of Defense, the Mazagon Dock Limited, where constructions of warship and submarines are being undertaken. Above 60% of the capacity of that yard is being utilized for the ship and submarine construction job and the remaining 40% for repair activities. The bulk of the ships repaired at Mazagon Dock comprise of Cargo and Passenger vessels, the refit of which is much easier as compared to that of warships and submarines, as, for the new constructions, the standards and specifications are from Admiralty and the project is executed under foreign collaboration and technical know-how. There is a Warship Overseeing Team and a Submarine Overseeing Team comprising of technical supervisors of the Indian Navy, which oversee the new constructions of warships and submarines in Mazagon Dock Limited. It cannot be logically summarized that the overseeing teams could be men of less technical caliber than the naval architects or constructors themselves. In fact the overseers should be men of superior abilities. And yet ironically the Civilian Technical Supervisory Staff are much less paid compared to their counterparts in the Mazagon Dock, though they were placed in cadre I by the 3rd Pay Commission. The overall emoluments of Mazagon Dock employees are quite high as compared to the Dockyard employees. Of late, the Technical Assistants, Asst Foreman and Foreman in the Mazagon Dockyard have been re-categorized as junior Engineers, Senior Engineers, and Deputy Superintendents etc with attractive pay scales. These junior or Senior Engineers are not exclusively meant for ship construction jobs but are also employed on ship repair jobs, and it will be appreciated that these repair jobs are less complicated in nature than those being undertaken at the Naval Dockyards and NSRYs. 

The history of technical supervisors with respect to designations/grades and pay scales are as follows:

Prior to 01 Jan 1971, the technical supervisory staffs were grouped and designated as below-

Grades & Pay Scales of Technical Supervisors prior 1971
Srl.	Designation / Grade	Basic pay scale (Rs)
1	Foreman	450-575
2	Inspector	335-485
3	Leading man	205-280

Devnath committee was appointed by the Ministry of Defense to recommend a suitable cadre revision for civilians employees. The committee recommended the following changes in designations and corresponding pay scales of the technical supervisory staff w.e.f. 01 Jan 1971. 

Grades & Pay Scales of Technical Supervisors w.e.f. 1971
Srl.	Designation / Grade	Basic pay scale (Rs)
1	Senior Foreman	450-650
2	Foreman	370-500
3	Senior Chargeman	250-380

The Devnath committee had recommended revision of pay scales and designation of technical supervisory staff; but the implementation of Devnath committee was limited to the Leadingman, revision of pay scales to Rs 250-380 and designation of senior Chargeman. The Inspector and Foreman designation was revised to Foreman and the Senior Foreman with not given any revision of pay scales.

The 3rd CPC w.e.f. 1986, recommended following pay scales for technical supervisory staff:

Grades & Pay Scales of Technical Supervisors post 3rd CPC
Srl	Designation / Grade	Basic pay scale (Rs)
1	Senior Foreman	840-1040
2	Foreman	550-750
3	Senior Chargeman	425-700

Further, the successive Pay Commissions, from the year 1986 to 2006 have downgraded the pay scales and designation of Technical Supervisory staff, when compared with similar posts in other government departments, is evident from the table below.

As shown in the tables, appended below the pay scales of technical supervisors were progressively degraded, since the 3rd and 4th CPCs. As a case in point, erstwhile Senior Foreman of Naval Dockyards and NSRYs where drawing higher basic pay than the Class-I Officer’s (INAS cadre) during the 4th CPC, and was progressively diluted further in the 5th CPC up to an extent that the pay scales allotted to the Technical supervisory staff is much lower than other government posts of similar nature, such as Police inspectors, Primary Teachers who till the previous pay commissions were in the lower pay scales than the technical supervisors of Navy, etc are evident from the table below. This degradation of pay structure of technical supervisory staff is not understood by this Association.

It would be pertinent to mention that whilst the pay scales of technical supervisors have been progressively diluted vis-a-vis other departments /posts with similar pay scales in previous pay commissions, moreover our duties and responsibilities have multiplied over a period of time, due to modernization of the systems and work load.

It is therefore requested for consideration of  up gradation of the existing Grade Pay of “Chargeman” from Rs. 4200/- to Rs.4800/- and the Grade Pay of Foreman from Rs. 4600/- to Rs.5400/- and  accordingly the corresponding Basic Pays/ Grade Pays be granted to the said posts in the 7th CPC.

• Hours  of  work  for  Non-Industrial Cadre = 40 hours.
• Grant of Restricted Holidays to Technical Supervisors of Indian Navy.
• Five days week for industrial establishments of Navy.
• Leave facilities – Maximum accumulation of leaves.
• Medical Facilities – Introduction of Assured healthcare  services to the technical supervisors working in Naval Units at remote and underdeveloped areas like Karwar, Azhimala etc.

• Group Insurance Scheme (GIS)

The working conditions inside the submarine are very risky and hazardous to the health and human life. Continuous work inside the submarines is deteriorating the health of the workmen employed there. Considering these factors the Service Personnel of Navy are granted Submarine Allowance to the qualified submariners. The V CPC recommended Submarine Allowance to the personnel other than the qualified submariners who en-block on a submarine for trials, training or passage (para 150.16 of V CPC recommendations).

The civilian employees of Navy who are engaged in repairing and attending the sea trials are also equally subjected to the hazard and discomfort and health concerns at par with the service personnel. The risk is inherent and continuous in occupation itself with its adverse ill effects on health. During the repair, working in confined spaces with dust, rust, heat smoke and humidity without ventilation is very risky and dangerous to health in nature. These persons are neither paid Risk nor Hazard Allowance. Though the service rules are not similar to the service and civilian personnel, the working conditions are similar and identical to all. We therefore demand that the Submarine Allowance be allowed for technical supervisors working in the submarines irrespective of service or civilian.

INTRODUCTION OF DEFENCE CIVILIAN SERVICE ALLOWANCES AT PAR WITH MILITARY SERVICE PAY.

Technical Pay at par with Naval Serviceman:

Anomaly 6th CPC

EXISTING AND PROPOSED GRADE STRUCTURE FOR TECHNICAL SUPERVISORY STAFF OF NAVAL DOCKYARDS AND NSRYS IS GIVEN BELOW

Srl.	Existing Structure		Proposed Structure
	Grade	Grade Pay	Grade	Grade Pay
1	Chargeman	4200, PB – 2	Junior Engineer	4800, PB – 2
2	Foreman	4600, PB – 2	Assistant Engineer	5400, PB – 2

JUSTIFICATION FOR RE-DESIGNATION

As stated earlier the technical supervisory staffs are highly competent, for the quality refit of Ships and Submarines due to their vast experience, are competent beyond doubt to maintain the high and précised standards for the combat preparedness and sea worthiness of Ships and Submarines, and as the technical supervisory staff are working successfully on the most modern technology, qualifies in all means to be termed as “Engineers”.

It’s a long pending demand from AINTSSA to re-designate the Chargeman to a respectable, dignified and contemporary designation of Junior Engineer, which may according to his technical competence are at par with the Chargeman of DGQA or other Government organizations, where the Chargeman is already been re-designated as Junior Engineer having similar duties, responsibilities and entry level qualifications when compared with. The designation of Chargeman is grossly out of sync with the duties / responsibilities and overshadows his engineering / technical background of our Technical Supervisor.

ENHANCEMENT OF ENTRY LEVEL QUALIFICATION

The last few decades have seen the induction of modern combat ships and submarines with hi-tech weapons in the Indian Navy fitted with state of art systems and equipments. Further, there is a need to cater for imminent inductions of various electronic / mechanical systems; gas turbines are of highly sophisticated technology. The type and scope of work due to introduction of above modernization and technologies has resulted in the requirement of domain specialization of associated Technical Supervisors, as in the all previous SROs / RRs (1972 to till date) for technical supervisory staff of Naval Dockyards and NSRYs, the entry level qualification is mentioned to be a Diploma in Engineering, and the same is not upgraded since last 40 years. 

Entry level qualification as per the SROs / Recruitment Rules of Technical Supervisory staff of Naval Dockyards and NSRYs is given below:-

Srl	SRO / RECRUITMENT RULES	FEEDER POST	ENTRY LEVEL QUALIFICATION
1	SRO 303, dtd. 11th Nov 1972	Sr. Chargeman	A Diploma in Mechanical / Electrical/ Tele-com / Structural Engineering / Naval Architecture and Ship Construction with not less than 1 years experience in the appropriate field.
2	SRO 291, dtd. 20th Oct 1983	Sr. Chargeman	A Diploma in Engineering in the appropriate discipline with not less than 1 years experience in the appropriate field.
3	SRO 08, dtd. 6th Feb 2007	Chargeman-II	A Degree in Science with Physics / Chemistry / Mathematics from recognized University; A Diploma in Engineering in the appropriate discipline with not less than 1 years experience in the appropriate field.
4	Draft SRO after 6th CPC implementation, which is still pending with IHQ(N) of MoD	Chargeman	A Diploma in Engineering in the appropriate discipline from recognized University or Board.

It is evident from above table, that the entry level qualification was ‘Diploma in Engineering in the appropriate discipline’, which remained unchanged from last 42 years.

 The Cadre revision for the technical supervisory staff was promulgated in the year 1971 and after nearly 42 years there is an opportunity and utmost requirement to revise the existing cadre to enhance the future technological requirement of the Navy. Definitely this cadre revision will update the technical supervisory cadre to sustain with the changing technology till the next cadre review.

 The entry level qualification for more than 40 years was as per, than the technical requirement of the systems. As now the systems are most sophisticated, hi-tech and as the technological scenario is changing globally day by day, it is very much essential that the technical supervisors are to get acquainted with these systems. To meet the requirement of high standard of professionalism and technical know-how, it is very much required that the entry level qualification to the post of Chargeman (Junior Engineer) to be upgraded to Degree in Engineering (B.E / B. Tech) to cope up with the present and future technology. 

This demand of change in entry level qualification will definitely benefit the functioning of the organization will maintain core competency and upgrade the technical ability of the Indian Navy. This demand of Association is purely in good faith of the Nation and should be welcomed

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