Staff to be regularised, placed in special cadre under new policy in Punjab

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 16

The state government has finally made a comprehensive policy for regularising the services of contractual, daily wage, work charged or temporary employees. The services of outsourced employees and those on incentive-based engagement will not be regularised.

In September 2022, the Cabinet had given its nod to regularise the services of around 8,000 teachers of the Education Department. Earlier this year, the Cabinet had approved the regularisation of 14,417 employees of various departments. However, the comprehensive policy was yet to be finalised.

According to the policy, those being regularised would be placed in the special cadre and would not be a part of the regular cadre.

Ashish Julaha of the Contractual Employees’ Action Committee said they had little hope as services of the contractual staff had not been regularised despite being approved by the Cabinet.

“The policy is not clear on whether the Punjab Civil Services Rules will apply on the special cadre. Is this cadre eligible for the post-retirement benefits?” said Julaha.

The policy states that other than working regularly for 10 years (240 days in each year), the applicant must have the requisite qualification and experience for the post in terms of relevant Service Rules, if any, at the time of placement in the special cadre, and work of the applicant must have remained satisfactory as per the assessment of the department or employer during the past 10 years.

The policy would not be applicable to a person who has been engaged in an honorary capacity or on a part-time basis or has already attained the age of superannuation.

It further states that “necessary number of category-wise posts in the service of the state government and its entities equal to number of the persons to be regularised shall be deemed to have been created and sanctioned in case sufficient number of posts are not available”.

25,000 employees identified

• The government has identified 25,000 contractual employees to be regularised in Group C and D
• The Congress and the SAD governments attempted to regularise their services at the fag end of their tenures