Punjab government approved regularisation of the services of as many as 14,417 ad hoc employees in the state, an official statement said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the council of ministers chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann held at Punjab Civil Secretariat-1.

“Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today gave nod to the policy for the welfare of ad-hoc, contractual, daily wages, work-charged and temporary employees. Thereby paving way for regularising the services of 14417 employees,” a spokesperson said

A spokesperson of the CM’s Office said that the services of 13,000 employees have already been regularized.

“Under previous governments, various appointments to ‘Group C’ and ‘Group D’ level posts, have been made on a contract/temporary basis on the basis of imminent requirements and exigencies of service. Some of such employees have now put in a period of 10 years and more with State and they have given their prime years of life in service of the State,” Spokesperson said.

“The Government has felt that now at this stage, to relieve them or to replace them in this capacity in service with another set of people will be unjustified and improper. Thus, being a Welfare State and to protect the interest of these contractual/ temporary employees, the state has formulated the present policy, under Article 162 read with entry 41 of list-Il of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, to ensure that such employees do not suffer from uncertainty and harassment and to grant them the security of tenure,” the spokesperson added.

“The state has taken a policy decision to continue such desirous suitable employees, who fulfil the eligibility conditions, in service till the age of 58 years by placing them in a special cadre,” the spokesperson said.

“The employees who have worked on ad-hoc, contractual, daily wages, work- charged or temporary basis for a continuous period of a minimum of ten years till the issuance of the present policy will be regularized. The applicant must have the requisite qualification 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 of service,” the statement added.

“For calculation of a period of ten years, the employee must have worked for a period of a minimum of 240 days in each of these ten calendar years and notional breaks will not be considered while calculating a period of ten years. For the purpose of grant of continuation to the contractual/ad-hoc/ temporary employees etc. and giving them the security of tenure, subject to good work and conduct, till the age of 58 years, they will be placed on a post, which shall not be a cadre post, by creating a special cadre of posts,” it added.

The official informed that these employees will not be placed in the regular cadre of sanctioned posts in the service under the statutory service rules and will form a special cadre of posts created especially for them.

“The process of placement of beneficiary employee, subject to clauses 2 and 3 of this Policy, shall commence on the submission of the application form by an employee seeking placement under this Policy. The application form must be accompanied by all required documents as prescribed and the incomplete application form shall be liable to be summarily rejected,” the spokesperson added.