CHANDIGARH: In a major employee friendly decision, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday approved a policy for regularising services of Adhoc, Contractual, and Temporary Teachers thereby benefitting more than 9000 employees of the state government.
A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of Council of Ministers chaired by the Chief Minister here at the Punjab Civil Secretariat- I.
Disclosing this here today, a spokesman of the Chief Minister’s Office said that previously various appointments to 'Group C' and 'Group D' level posts in government had been made on contract/temporary basis. Some of such employees have now put in a period of more than 10 years and had given their prime years of life in service of the state. The Cabinet opined that now at this stage, to relieve these employees will be unjustified and improper.
Thus, being a Welfare State and to protect the interest of these contractual temporary employees, state government has formulated a Policy for welfare of Adhoc, Contractual, and temporary teachers and other employees in Education Department under Article 162 read with entry 41 of list-II of the Seventh Schedule of Constitution of India, to ensure that such employees do not suffer from uncertainty and harassment and to grant them a security of tenure. The state government has taken a policy decision to continue such desirous suitable Teachers, who fulfill the eligibility conditions, in service till the age of 58 years by placing them in a special cadre. This policy, which will benefit more than 9000 employees, has been framed only in relation to Group C & Group D posts of Education department, Punjab.
For regularization of services an employee should have worked on adhoc, contractual, or temporary basis for a continuous period of minimum ten years till the issuance of present policy and must have possessed the requisite qualifications and experience for the post in terms of rules, if any, at the time of placement in the Special Cadre. The work and conduct of the applicant must have remained satisfactory as per the assessment of the department/employer during the period of 10 years service.
However, the policy will not be applicable to a person who has been engaged in an honorary capacity or on a part time basis or had attained the age of superannuation or had resigned on his own or had not been retained by the Department or had been engaged on outsourced basis or is on an incentive based engagement or does not possess the requisite qualifications and experience for the post prescribed under the service rules, if any, at the time of placement in the Special Cadre or had been engaged or continues in service on account of any interim order(s), direction(s) of any Court or Tribunal; or had been convicted of any offence involving moral turpitude or charges have been framed against him in a Court of Law relating to such offence.
For the purpose of grant of continuation to these employees they will be placed on a post, which shall not be a cadre post, by creating special cadre of posts. The process of placement of beneficiary employee will commence after submission of the Application Form, accompanied by all required documents, by him. The beneficiary employees, who are being placed in special cadre posts and will be allowed to continue in service till the age of 58 years. They will be treated as a fresh appointee.