8th Pay Commission: Level-wise fitment factors of 2.92, 3.5 and 3.8 proposed by employees' body

The Indian Railways Technical Supervisors’ Association (IRTSA) has proposed level-wise fitment factors for their members to the 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC).

In their meeting with the 8th CPC, IRTSA proposed three fitment factors:

• 2.92 fitment factor for level-1 posts
• 3.5 fitment factor for levels 6,7 and 8
• 3.8 fitment factor for levels 9 to 12

IRTSA's proposal for different fitment factors is based on different job risks faced by railway engineers at various levels.

"In Ministry of Railways, for safety category posts, higher indexing of fitment factor should be followed for posts from level-6. Fitment factor for level-1 post is arrived as 2.92, fitment factor for posts level-6, 7 & 8 should be “2.92X1.2=3.50”. For mid position posts in pay level9 to 12 fitment factor of “2.92X1.3=3.80” should be adopted," IRTSA said in its meeting with the 8th CPC in Hyderabad on May 29, 2026.

During the meeting, IRTSA presented a comprehensive presentation based on their earlier memorandum to the 8th CPC at Hyderabad on 19 May 2026. The association also highlighted the issues of career stagnation among technical supervisors and proposed "elevating the pay levels for Junior Engineers and Senior Section Engineers to better reflect their duties and hazards nature of work."

Apart from different fitment factors, the key demands of IRTSA include classifying Senior Section Engineer as Group-B gazetted status and revising the minimum Pay to ₹52,600 based on modern economic factors.

During the meeting, IRSTA discussed issues of anomalies in,

• Pay level for JEs & SSEs

• Five grade structure starting form level-7 for JEs for technical supervisors

• Disturbance of vertical relativities and horizontal parities with other categories

• Distribution of Group-A, B & C posts in technical departments of Railways and insufficient Group-B posts

• Classification of SSE posts as Group-B

• Stagnation among the cadre particularly in SSE grade & stagnation of Graduate Engineers recruited as SSE in their entry grade

• Inclusion of training period for the purpose of MACPS

• Implementation MACPS w.e.f. 01.01.2006 and its related court judgements

• Bottle necks to the promotion to Group-B for the reasons - less number of Group-B posts, unjustified comparison of running staff at lower grade with Technical Supervisors & continuance of bottle neck at Group-B level

• Allowances related to Technical Supervisors including night duty allowance, over time allowance, Production Control Organisation (PCO) Allowance, etc.

Earlier in their memorandum to the 8th CPC, IRSTA had proposed the following starting salaries for various cadres:

• Junior Engineer - Level-7 - ₹1,57,400

• Senior Section Engineer (Gr-B) - Level-8 – ₹1,66,800

• Asst Manager (Gr-B) - Level-9 - ₹ 2,01,600

• Manager (Gr-B) - Level-10 - ₹2,13,000

• Senior Manager (Gr-A) - Level-11 - ₹ 2,57,000

They also said that, "Chief Metallurgical Assistant, Chief Metallurgical Superintendent, Depot Material Superintendent, Chief Depot Material Superintendent, Junior Engineer (IT) and Senior Engineer (IT) having similar recruitment qualification, similar duties & responsibilities should be placed on par with Technical Supervisors. They should be given same designation of Technical Supervisors with suitable suffix. "

Further, IRSTA urged the 8th CPC ensure the highest salary is not limited to the ratio between minimum and maximum pay.