Underpaid, overlooked - ONGC staff at DGH
ONGC officers on secondment to the DGH are complaining that they do not get the same monthly allowance as officers on secondment there from other state-owned companies.
On February 13 (2024), the ONGC Officers Association (OOA) raised this complaint in a two-page letter to HR director Manish Patil. "ONGC executives posted on assignment at the DGH in Noida are not being paid the deputation allowance on par with other PSUs," said the OOA letter, which added that the union has received "numerous representations" about this from officers working at the DGH.
About 180 officers from oil and power state-owned companies are on loan to the DGH. About 100 are from ONGC, 30 from Oil India, 10 from GSPC, seven from IndianOil, 6 from GAIL and the rest from other state-owned companies.
Each officer receives a special monthly allowance of 10% of their revised basic salary subject to a Rs9000/month ($112) limit if the officer is from outside Delhi and Rs4500/month ($56) for an officer from Delhi. ONGC, or whichever other state-owned company, pays this special monthly allowance to the officers with their salaries, which the DGH then reimburses.
However, ONGC officers do not receive this special deputation allowance in line with pay scales revised in 2017, only according to their previous lower pay scales. ONGC officers at the DGH range from assistant executive engineer to ED rank.
In its letter to Patil, the OOA stresses that the DGH had "written a letter to you dated March 15 (2023) underscoring the issue that ONGC executives at the DGH are not paid deputation allowance based on the revised basic salary, in contrast to their counterparts in other PSUs." And what's more, stresses the OOA, Oil India, IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum, NTPC, GAIL, and GSPC executives at the DGH receive this deputation allowance.
Signed by OOA president M George Ravi Shekeran, the letter is marked with copies to ONGC employees relations chief Ranjan Asthana, DGM Ajay Singh Chauhan in HR based in Dehradun, and the following members of the BMS workers union: president Hiranmay Pandya, general secretary Ravindra Himte, and vice-president Mallesham.