Saini govt’s job security ‘bonanza’ fails to enthuse contractual staff
Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 9
The Nayab Singh Saini government’s pre-poll ‘bonanza’ in the form of job security to about 1.20 lakh contractual staff has failed to enthuse them.
Ploy to cut regular appointments
Giving job security to contractual employees till retirement is a ploy
to reduce regular appointments. As the contractual employees are paid much less than the regular staff, various departments will now prefer to recruit employees on contractual basis to cut down expenditure. Subhash Lamba, President, All India state government employees federation
Against ‘equal pay, equal work’
The BJP government’s move is against the principle of equal pay, equal work. The government should dissolve the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRNL) and announce the regularisation of services of contractual employees working under it. — Kumari Selja, Congress MP
Flagging deficiencies in the proposed policy, the employees have termed it as a ploy to dilute the demand for the regularisation of the contractual employees by ‘keeping them on contract till retirement at low wages.”
“Since the contractual employees are working against the sanctioned posts, giving them job security till retirement is a ploy to reduce regular appointments. As the contractual employees are paid much less than the regular staff, various state government departments will now prefer to recruit the employees on contractual basis to cut down expenditure,” alleged Subhash Lamba, president, All India State Government Employees Federation.
Moreover, excluding the contractual employees working under the Central projects such as the National Health Mission (NHM) and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the staff not working under the state government’s outsourcing policy and the Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRNL) was ‘unjust’. Thousands of these employees have been demanding the regularisation of their services for several years, the union leaders alleged.
The Haryana Cabinet yesterday approved the Haryana Contractual Employees Ordinance, 2024 to guarantee their job security until the age of superannuation.
As per the ordinance, the contractual employees, who will complete five years of service by August 15, 2024, will be eligible under this scheme. Such workers will receive a basic salary equivalent to the pay scale of posts, a consolidated monthly remuneration increase with effect from the first day of January and first day of July every year due to hike in dearness allowance (DA) and an annual increment after one year of service.
Besides, they will also be entitled to death-cum-retirement gratuity and benefits under the Maternity Act. Under the PM-Jan Arogya Yojana-Chirayu Extension Scheme, the families of contractual employees will also be provided the benefit of health facilities.
Meanwhile, Congress MP from Sirsa Kumari Selja has demanded that the state government should dissolve the HKRNL and announce the regularisation of the services of contractual employees working under it. “The government’s move to provide job security to the contractual employees till retirement is against the principle of equal pay, equal work,” she asserted.
It may be recalled that just before the 2014 Assembly elections, the then Congress Government had come out with three regularisation policies for the contractual employees, claiming that thousands of the employees would be benefited. However, services of only 4,654 employees could be regularised under these policies.
The policies were later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. A special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Haryana Government against the high court decision is still pending in the Supreme Court.
