The government is preparing to bring a law to retire about ten thousand civil servants at once. The government is doing the homework to retire civil servants who have completed 55 years of age or 30 years of service. 

The draft Civil Service Bill prepared by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration has made a special provision to retire employees once.

An official from the ministry informed that the draft includes a provision for mandatory retirement for employees who have completed 55 years of age or 30 years of service on the date of implementation of the Act. “That provision is for once, for employees other than those who retire in this way, the retirement age will be 60 years,” he said. 

The Civil Service Bookstore has informed the government that about 10 thousand employees will retire at once after the Bill becomes an Act. The number of employees who retire regularly is between 2,000 and 3,000 in each fiscal year. According to the data of the library, the number of employees going on compulsory retirement in the current fiscal year 082/83 is 2,211. In addition to these, 10,000 employees will get leave if the law is passed to retire employees who are 55 years old or have completed 30 years of service. 

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has stated that the proposal for the new provisions regarding age and service period came from the political level. “It is clear that the government wants to make the personnel administration more efficient by reducing the size,” said an official from the ministry. According to him, the ministry had sent the draft of the bill to the Ministry of Law on 11 Jestha after taking the opinion of the Ministry of Finance. The draft has not been returned from there. 

On 13 Chaitra, the same day the government was formed under the leadership of Balendra Shah, a ‘100 agenda for government reforms’ was brought, stating that administrative reforms, restructuring and austerity would be prioritized and the Civil Service Bill would be formulated within 45 days. 

That is why the government has given this bill high priority, said the official from the ministry. The Ministry of Federal Affairs has been urging the Ministry of Law for an early withdrawal with consent. 

Employees of the Ministry of Federal Affairs or Law have not agreed to speak formally on the contents of the bill. Ministry spokesperson Joint Secretary Ekdev Adhikari said that he did not have any further information except that the draft of the bill has been sent to the Ministry of Law for approval. The bill also proposes to reduce the tenure of the Chief Secretary from 3 years to 2 years and the tenure of the Secretary from 5 years to 3 years.

An official of the Ministry of Federal Affairs informed that 60 percent of the current secretaries will retire in the event of the age limit being reduced, the service period being calculated and the tenure being reduced. There are 70 vacancies for the post of special category secretary. According to the official, 52 secretaries will retire due to the age limit of 55 years and 30 years of service period if the law comes into force immediately. 

The number of joint secretaries is more than 600. There are 50,768 employees in the union. There are 85,240 employees working in the civil service at the federal, provincial and local levels. Of the employees registered with the civil service registry, 46.8 percent are working at the federal level, 16.2 percent at the provincial level and 37 percent at the local level. 

The government is also reviewing the posts of employees at all three levels based on workload and needs. An Organization and Management (O&M) survey of all agencies has been initiated. Keeping these issues in mind, an official from the ministry said that the government has prepared for employee leave. The government has restructured the previous 22 ministries and reduced them to 18. That too, there is pressure to reduce the number of employees.

The ministry had made public the initial draft of the Civil Service Bill on April 11 with the aim of seeking opinions and suggestions. It did not have a provision for an age limit of 55 years or a service period of 30 years for retirement. It proposed a provision for civil servants to retire after completing 60 years of age. Currently, civil servants are retiring after completing 58 years of age. 

Four officials from the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Law contacted by Kantipur said that the current draft contains a provision for retirement at the age of 55 or a service period of 30 years. “The provision has been made that regular retirement will take place after completing the age of 60. The retirement age limit of 55 years or the service period of 30 years has been set only once,” said an official. “It is not possible to say whether it will remain the same or be removed. Even if the Law Ministry itself says that it is not compatible, it may be problematic to move forward.” 

In an informal conversation, officials from the Law Ministry say that the proposal in the draft bill is incompatible with the existing law and is not fair. They point to Section 58 of the existing Civil Service Act. The section states that “no civil servant shall be subject to any change in the terms and conditions of service relating to salary, gratuity, pension and other facilities applicable at the time of his appointment in a manner that adversely affects him without his consent.” It further states, ‘If the subsequent amendment adversely affects the above conditions of service of any civil servant who was in office before such amendment, such provision shall not be applicable to him without the written consent of the person making such amendment.’ 

If the law is to be followed, the government cannot forcibly send an employee home, said an official from the Ministry of Law. ‘Section 58 of the Civil Service Act prohibits the abrupt removal of an employee who has entered government service with the guarantee of security of certain service conditions before his foreseeable retirement date without permission,’ he said. 

Information in this regard has been conveyed to Law Minister Sobita Gautam from the personnel level. ‘We will discuss with the Ministry of Federal Affairs. The proposed section for retirement is not in accordance with the law. Our job is to inform about it. If they agree, it will be removed,’ said the official.

A joint secretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs said that it is not possible to say that this is the final draft as it has to go through many stages. ‘The draft will now be sent to the Council of Ministers based on the opinion received from the Law Ministry. The Council of Ministers will send it to the Public Service Commission for its opinion,’ he said. ‘After the opinion of the Public Service Commission, there will be a discussion in the Legislative Committee of the Council of Ministers. Only then will the Council of Ministers take the decision to submit it to Parliament.’

The government is trying to bring the Civil Service Act soon. High-level officials also say that an ordinance may be brought in this regard. The salary of employees has been increased by 10 percent from July 1. The government wants to send about 10,000 employees to retirement by Asad as implementing that provision may increase the additional expenditure on salaries and pensions on the state in the new fiscal year. ‘It may take time to take the bill to Parliament and go through a phased process,’ said an official. ‘Therefore, there is a possibility that the government will go for the option of bringing an ordinance. But it is not known whether any discussions or preparations have been made.'

The employees involved in the drafting process disagree with the fact that the criteria of 55 years of age or 30 years of service have been set under political pressure. Some have even commented that this is a 'coup' on the personnel administration. 'A law that allows those who reach 55 years of age or 30 years of service to retire on the day the law comes into force, but those who are one day older than that to retire only after reaching 60 years of age is not appropriate from the perspective of equity,' said a high-ranking employee. 'The voluntary retirement model can also be adopted to reduce the number of employees.'

An official from the Ministry of Federal Affairs said that the Finance Ministry is not ready to give its consent as it seems that going for the voluntary retirement model would impose a huge burden on the state at once.

Former Chief Secretary Bimal Koirala says that the government should create an environment for interested employees to choose retirement by providing concessions and facilities. ‘Removing employees by setting the age limit of 55 or the service period of 30 years is unfair to them,’ he said. ‘If they are to be removed or retired, the government should be able to provide a respectful golden handshake package.’ 

Koirala says it is wrong to try to retire employees appointed through the Public Service Commission on a kind of contract/condition. ‘Everyone should not be forced to leave. Those who want to leave should be sent after making them feel comfortable. It was sent like this once in the past. It was decided to give some packages at that time too,’ he said. ‘It is a matter of natural justice for them to be able to work as per the conditions they had made while taking the exam at the Public Service Commission.’ 

Example of the Girija Prasad Koirala government 

The Girija Prasad Koirala-led government had forcibly retired a large number of employees in 2049 BS. At that time, the employees were dismissed by amending the regulations, not the act. The Civil Service Act 2013 had a provision that the government could make rules to regulate the recruitment and service conditions of persons appointed to civil service posts. The Koirala government had amended the regulations based on the same provision in Section 7 of the Act. 

At that time, the retirement age of an employee was 60 years. There was no provision for the period of service for retirement. On 21 Kartik 2049, the Koirala government made the 29th amendment to the Civil Service Regulations. The amendment provided that ‘a civil employee shall be retired from government service after completing the age of 58 years or after completing the period of his service of 30 years’. The regulation also provided that ‘His Majesty’s Government may, if it so wishes, provide compulsory retirement from service to any civil employee who has reached the age of 60 years.’ The government has made arrangements to provide additional pension to the total period of service of the employee who is to be retired, including the period remaining before completing the age of 60 years.