Two things that have been going on without any impediment every five years has been election and pay revision of government employees
Kerala is one of the rare states where salary is revised once in five years. Most other states and the Centre go for pay revision every ten years.

But since it is very much linked to vote bank, the pay revision for government employees never gets disrupt, however precarious state the State’s financial condition is.

The current pay reform is going to be implemented on a war footing, despite the fact that Kerala is in the midst of two consecutive floods and the economic meltdown caused by the still unrelenting Covid pandemic.

Even before the announcement of the Assembly elections, the government was compelled to write a report to the Pay Commission.
The revised pay will have retrospective effect from July 1, 2019. The two-year arrears will be deposited in the PF as usual. The recommendation is to pay salaries at the new rate from April 1. Further proceedings in the Commission's report is now purely technical.

Although some of the opposition unions have expressed their usual dissatisfaction and resentment over the pay commission report, it can be seen that the commission has put forward generally acceptable recommendations.

In the current economic climate, no matter how much the salary is increased, it won’t suffice to cover all the expenses.

So many may not be willing to accept the pay commission's recommendations with full satisfaction. And it is natural.
The 11th pay revision commission on Friday submitted its report to the Kerala government, recommending an increase in the lowest salary under the state service from Rs 16,000 to Rs 23,100 and hiking the lowest pension from Rs 8,500 to Rs 11,500.

The highest salary recommended is Rs 1,66,800 and the highest pension is Rs 83,400.

The state has 5 lakh each employees and pensioners. Of the employees, 60 per cent are in the education and health sectors, which have been key to the state’s social development indices.

The hike in salary and pension would bring an additional annual burden of Rs 4,810 crore for the cash-strapped state government.

The recommended hike in salary and pension would have retrospective effect from July 2019. As the notification for the assembly elections is likely to come next month, the government would have to soon take a decision on the recommendations.

The commission has also recommended a 1-year parent care leave for employees to take care of their bed-ridden parents. The employees availing that leave would get 40 percent leave salary. There is also a child-care leave to look after the children below the age of 3. There is a recommendation to increase paternity leave from 10 days to 15 days.

The report also recommends that the next pay revision be made in 2026 alone. Under the current system, the timeline for the next update is 2024.

The commission's recommendation also takes into account the increased financial burden on the government through a pay revision every five.
The Commission might not have proposed a pension age of 60 fearing opposition to this in the state. Still there is no justification for not raising the pension age here alone.
Meanwhile, complaints galore over the services that people need and expect from the government.

In addition to recommendations for pay rises, the Commission regularly makes specific recommendations on how to make the administration more efficient. But this time the report had to be prepared in a hurry and therefore administrative reform recommendations will be submitted only in due course.
Even if it is made available early, it will remain in paper.

For a service from the government that can be provided in just hours or days, people most often have had to wait for weeks and months. This is nothing but lack of commitment.
The government spends more than half of the money obtained as revenue, through borrowing and through loan towards paying salaries and pensions.
Adding the interest on the borrowed money also to the expense, 62 per cent of the income is spent on these three things (salary, pension and interest). At present, an additional Rs 4,810 crore is required to implement the new pay reform.

This is, of course, an additional liability for the government, which has have to borrow money every month to pay up salaries.

The time has come for the government and the workers' organizations to think seriously about implementing the pay reform every ten years, as s followed at the Center.
When we think about the overall growth and existence of the state, we come to realise that this is necessary.