Govt college teachers’ body opposes new recruitment Bill

The Himachal Pradesh Government College Teachers Association (HGCTA) has expressed its anguish over the recent HP Recruitment and Conditions of Service of Government Employees Bill-2024, 2024, which has been enacted by the state government. The Mandi unit of HGCTA staged a protest here today against this bill.

HGCTA state president BK Saklani said the Bill was “unconstitutional and contemptuous” in its nature, which is anti-employee. “The Bill aims to discredit the services rendered by the employees on contract basis who have been recruited by the state government through Public Service Commission of Himachal Pradesh,” she added.

“In the past, many judgements have been passed by the HP High Court and the Supreme Court in favour of the employees to count the period of contract service for all types of benefits as they have discharged similar duties as the regular counterparts. The court has directed the state government in various judgements to count contract period for the benefit of increments, promotions and other consequential benefits. However, the state government has been reluctant to implement these judgements in letter and spirit,” she remarked.

“In order to override the judgements of the court and shirking its responsibility towards its employees, the state government has come out with the Recruitment and Conditions of Service Bill. This is the first of its kind move on behalf of any state government in the country to use the legislature to harass more than 70 per cent of the employees of the state,” said Saklani.

“The ministers of the state government, at various public platforms, had promised that they will do away with the contract policy and count the services of the employees from the date of joining,” she added.

Saklani said, “The employees of the state are thankful enough to the present government for restoring the old pension scheme (OPS), but they were not expecting it to come at the cost of their present service benefits. Moreover, the state government has set a wrong precedent to overpower the country’s judicial system and nullify the benefits of the employees retrospectively. This decision has strike hard on the pro-employee image of the government.”

“The Bill considers the service rendered by the contract employee as non-public whereas all these appointments have been made as per the regular counterparts in respect of essential qualification, nature of job profile and recruitment agency, the Public Service Commission of HP. If these services are not to be considered as public services, then how the government claims the benefits of contract period for OPS. This reflects the double standards of the government,” said Saklani.

“On behalf of the college teachers, it is strongly urged to the state government to immediately withdraw the Bill and implement all the court orders in true spirit in favour of the employees. Otherwise, the employees will challenge the Bill in the high court or Supreme Court of India or would not even shirk to be on the streets for their rights,” she asserted.