8th Pay Commission extends deadline for memorandum submission; NC-JCM raises pension, safety concerns

The deadline for submitting the 8th Pay Commission memorandum has been extended to Sunday, May 31, 2026, after many employee and pensioner associations and individuals complained that they were unable to submit the memorandum despite making many attempts. The 8th CPC, however, didn’t allow the submission of memorandum in the PDF and MS Word formats online or by hand offline.

The development came on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, a day after National Council of the Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) (Staff side) raised this issue in a meeting with top 8th Pay Commission officials.

As per a letter dated April 28, 2026, by C Srikumar, an NC-JCM member who was also present in the meeting on Thursday, the key points of the meeting between NC-JCM and the 8th Pay Commission are as follows-

According to NC-JCM, the phrase 'unfunded pension' used in 8th CPC terms of reference (ToR) is incorrect because employees surrendered the Contributory Provident Fund Scheme to which the government contributed prior to the introduction of non-contributory pension and opted for the Pension Scheme instead.

NC-JCM has long been demanding the abolition of National Pension System (NPS) and Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) and the revival of Old Pension Scheme (OPS). It reiterated this demand in the Wednesday meeting also.

NC-JCM has asked the 8th CPC to create a schedule for regular engagements with it. Highlighting its 60-year history, NC-JCM stated that as the highest-level representative body of central government employees, all previous pay commissions interacted with it on a regular and frequent basis before finalising recommendations.

“Federations and associations of different ministries will be submitting memorandum on the issues specific to a ministry/departments such as Railways, Defence, Income Tax, Postal, Accounts, Audit, etc. All those employees’ organisations may be given separate time slots for oral evidence and for presenting their case before the 8th CPC,” as per the letter.

According to NC-JCM, the conditions under which the majority of people work, primarily in the railway and defence industries, as well as in field units in various remote places, are extremely risky and harmful. The key employee body has suggested the 8th CPC to visit all of those industries and places to gain firsthand knowledge of the issues experienced by such employees and provide appropriate recommendations.