8th Pay Commission Memoranda: 7 Key Asks on Leave Rules from Employee Bodies

The 30 April 2026 deadline for memoranda submission to the 8th Pay Commission has produced an unprecedented volume of representations across employee bodies. The NC-JCM Staff Side memorandum is the umbrella document; individual federations (AIRF, FNPO, Confederation, etc.) have submitted parallel memoranda with department-specific demands. This piece extracts the seven leave-rule demands that recur across these submissions.

Demand 1: Earned Leave ceiling raised to 400 days

The NC-JCM lead demand. Detailed treatment in Earned Leave Under 8th CPC.

Demand 2: Leave encashment on resignation

The current rule allows full encashment on superannuation. The position on encashment when an employee resigns mid-career (rather than retires on superannuation) has been ambiguous. Several federations have demanded a uniform rule allowing encashment on resignation as well, with appropriate safeguards.

Demand 3: CCL uniform full-pay treatment

The current rule (full pay for first 365 days, 80 percent for next 365 days). Demand: uniform full pay for the entire 730-day entitlement. See 8th CPC: CCL Pay Calculation.

Demand 4: Maternity Leave extension to 270 days

Some federations have demanded that Maternity Leave be raised from 180 days to 270 days, in line with global practice and the recommendations of the 6th National Commission for Women. The demand has not been universally adopted across the memoranda; the NC-JCM main memorandum is silent on this specific change.

Demand 5: Paternity Leave extension to 30 days

The current 15-day Paternity Leave is widely regarded as inadequate. Multiple federations have demanded extension to 30 days, with the 6-month window for utilisation extended to 12 months.

Demand 6: Special Casual Leave for blood donation, eye donation

The existing position grants Special Casual Leave for various purposes (blood donation, eye donation, family welfare camps) but the granting authority and quantum vary across departments. Demand: a uniform DoPT framework specifying the categories and the quantum.

Demand 7: Digital leave management interface

A common demand across all submissions: that DoPT mandate a unified digital leave-management portal across Central Government departments, replacing the patchwork of intranet-based and paper-based systems currently in use. The demand is process-oriented but is widely supported because it would reduce delays in sanction and produce auditable records.

Where these demands stand

All seven demands are at the memoranda stage. The 8th CPC will examine, hold consultations, and recommend a final position over the next 18 months. The Government may then accept, modify, or reject each recommendation. Until the actual notification, none of these demands has operational effect. We will track each one through the Commission’s deliberations and publish updates when the position changes.

Detailed treatment of each demand, the federation-by-federation positions, and the projected timeline for any change to take effect will follow in a forthcoming update as the 8th CPC’s work progresses.