Relief for contract staff of Chandigarh Administration
Chandigarh, March 4
In an interim relief, the UT Administration has allowed over 1,400 contract employees of various departments to continue after March 31, but with certain conditions.
In compliance with the guidelines issued by the Central Government in January, the Administration has abolished regular posts that were not filled with regular employees for more than five years. The contract employees working in more than 40 departments of the Administration against these sanctioned posts were to lose their job after March 31. Nearly 1,425 contractual employees have been working in various departments at present.
According to a notice issued by the UT Department of Personnel on continuation of contractual engagement (on direct contract basis) in various departments, the department(s) may ascertain the functional requirement against vacant posts or posts which have fallen under the abolished category.
The department(s) will send the proposal to the ministry concerned for creation/revival of these abolished post(s). The exercise must be completed within one week.
The notice further states that the person(s) who fulfil the eligibility criteria for the post may continue to be engaged on a direct contract basis, subject to various conditions.
As per the department, regular recruitment is to be done against the alive and sanctioned post(s) at the earliest; and continuation of contractual engagement may be considered till regular incumbent(s) join against the alive and sanctioned posts. In case of abolished posts, the contractual engagement may be considered till the said post is revived/created and regular recruitment is made.
The engagement of the direct contractual employee(s) may be considered beyond the approved tenure, where functional requirement and administrative exigencies exist and regular recruitment is likely to take some time in spite of sincere efforts of the department. In such cases, prior concurrence of the Finance Department will be mandatory.
Budget under the Wages Head has been made available with the respective department in this regard. The remuneration of the contract employee(s) will not be payable from the salary head. It will be payable/drawn from the wages head of the respective department; and the remuneration to be paid to the employee(s) engaged on direct contract basis will remain the same (including DA) as on date and will be governed in future as per terms of contract (except the condition pertaining to existence of vacant post).
The above terms and conditions will not apply to the autonomous bodies/boards/corporations/societies/councils etc.
Expressing displeasure, Bipin Sher Singh, chairman of the All-Contractual Karamchari Sangh, said the UT Administration had extended the deadline due to the coming Lok Sabha elections.
As result of instructions/guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as Ministry of Finance, the UT Finance Department issued a circular on January 10 that regular posts that were not filled with regular employees for more than five years were to be abolished.
Nearly 1,425 contractual employees are working with the UT Administration, 235 with public sector undertaking and 75 with the civic body.
Sangh’s apprehension
Within the realm of functional requirements, department heads wield a significant influence that can be dangerous to an employee. The allocation for salaries from the wages head has the potential to diminish the legal standing of claims in ongoing cases of regularisation before the court. — Bipin Sher Singh, chairman, All-Contractual Karamchari Sangh
