Dehradun: The Uttarakhand government finds itself in a dilemma following three major rulings from the High Court and Supreme Court regarding thousands of employees working in government departments and public enterprises on an outsourced, contractual, daily wage, and work-charge basis.
The courts have ordered the regularization of temporary employees in the state and directed that they be given equal pay for equal work. The government faces the challenge of implementing these rulings, as not doing so could lead to unrest among employees, while implementation would impose a heavy financial burden on the state treasury. Already struggling with financial management, the government is worried about the additional strain that enforcing the court’s rulings would place on its finances. As a result, the government has decided to file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter of outsourced employees.
An Additional Rs 500 Crore Monthly Expense:
Currently, the state government employs 1.60 lakh regular employees, with an annual salary expenditure of Rs 17,185 crore. An additional Rs 1,309 crore is spent annually on employees of government-aided institutions, and Rs 1,091 crore on outsourced workers. Various departments and institutions also employ 40,000 to 50,000 temporary workers. If the court’s decision is implemented, the government will have to arrange an additional RS 6,000 crore annually for these temporary workers. Moreover, regularization would create further pressure to pay arrears. These concerns are making the government hesitant to act, even though the employees are demanding equal pay for equal work.
Three Court Rulings :
First Ruling: Recently, the High Court, while hearing special leave petitions filed by Narendra Singh Bisht and four others, ordered the regularization of temporary employees who have completed 10 years of service under the 2013 regulations. The cabinet is in favor of setting July 2024 as the cut-off date for this process.
Second Ruling: The Supreme Court has ruled on the regularization of work-charge employees of the Forest Department who were left out of earlier regularization processes. A cabinet subcommittee has been formed to address this issue, and one meeting has already taken place.
Third Ruling: The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of providing outsourced employees with equal pay for equal work and regularizing their positions.
Temporary employees hired through Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Kalyan Nigam and other means in several departments have been fighting legal battles in courts for years. They are paid significantly less than regular employees for the same positions and demand that the government give them equal pay for equal work until they are regularized.
