A pending lawsuit by government employees could add more to the burdens of the exchequer as the costly Eighth National Pay Scale nears its official announcement date.
A 2011 High Court ruling, upheld in 2013 by the Appellate Division, found that civil servants who had been transferred from development to revenue project posts between 1972 and 1997 were entitled to receive full time scale and selection grade benefits.
The Finance Ministry, currently facing a contempt of court case for failing to implement the HC verdict, has sought guidance from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Another lawsuit over civil servants’ benefits accrued between 1997 and 2015 is currently in court. Officials said this could impact the development budget.
A summary sent to the PMO by the Finance Division’s Implementation Wing estimates that it will cost Tk6,000 crore to pay the nearly 200,000 government employees.
If implemented, the HC order will “cause the discrimination” of senior civil servants, the Implementation Wing summary claimed.
The secretary general of the Government Employees’ Welfare Association, which brought the legal action against the government, disputed that the payout would cost so much.
“It is not true that the government will need Tk6,000 crore to implement the verdict,” said GEWA’s Md Nazrul Islam.
“Only Tk100 crore to Tk200 crore will be needed … most civil servants who were transferred to revenue projects have already collected their time scale and selection grade benefits,” he said. The implementation of the verdict has already been delayed by a year and a half.
