The Uttarakhand government is in a dilemma after three major decisions of the High Court and the Supreme Court in the case of thousands of employees employed on outsourcing, contract, daily wages and work charge in government departments and public undertakings. The court has ordered to regularize the temporary employees of the state and give them equal pay for equal work. On one hand, there is a danger of employees going on strike if the decision is not implemented and on the other hand, if the government implements the decision, there is a possible heavy burden on the treasury.

The government, already facing the challenge of financial management, is worried about the burden on the treasury due to the implementation of the court’s decision. This is the reason why the government has now decided to file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s decision on the special leave petition in the case of outsourced employees.

Pressure increased due to three decisions of the court
Decision one: The High Court recently ordered regularization of temporary employees who have completed 10 years of service under the rules of the year 2013 after hearing the special leave petitions of Narendra Singh Bisht and four others. The cabinet is in favor of keeping the cut off date of July 2024 for this.
Decision two: The Supreme Court has given its decision in the matter of regularization of work charge employees of the Forest Department who were left out of regularization. On this, the Cabinet has formed a cabinet sub-committee, which has already held a meeting.
Decision three: Recently, the Supreme Court has given a decision regarding giving equal pay for equal work to outsourced employees and making them permanent.
Expenditure of five hundred crores will increase every month
At present, there are 1.60 lakh regular employees in the state government. The government is spending Rs 17,185 crore annually on their salaries. The government is spending Rs 1,309 crore annually on the employees of government-aided institutions and Rs 1,091 crore annually on outsourced workers. There are 40 to 50 thousand temporary employees in many departments and institutions. If the court’s decision is implemented, the government will have to arrange about 6,000 crore rupees for all these temporary employees. After regularization, there will be a separate pressure to pay the arrears of the employees. Due to these apprehensions, the government is hesitating.
The battle is being fought in the court for years
The employees doing temporary jobs in many departments through Upanal and other means have been fighting a battle in the courts for many years. They are getting much less salary than the posts on which they are working. They want the government to give them equal pay for equal work until they are regularized.