Govt. cannot exploit workers in outsourcing guise: HC

If posts were temporary, why are workers’ services being availed for years, asks court

Issues relating to services of outsourced workers of sanitation department in GHMC, who had been working for long, can be resolved through One-Time Settlement, Telangana High Court on said.

Hearing a writ appeal filed by the GHMC challenging a single judge order to regularise services of 98 sanitation workers, a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy sought to know what was wrong with the order. If the posts of sanitation workers were temporary, why were they being make to work for several years, the bench questioned. Recently, a single judge directed GHMC to regularise services of 98 outsourced sanitation workers and pay minimum time scale salaries to them. All the arrears should be paid by September 15, the order said. Challenging this direction, the GHMC filed an appeal.

Senior counsel S. Niranjan Reddy, appearing for GHMC, contended that petitioners were not GHMC regular employees. They were not appointed by the civic body and were hired by an outsourcing agency, he said. GHMC was paying wages to nearly 30,000 persons. If outsourced workers were to be paid on the lines of regular scale, it would be a huge financial burden on the civic body, the lawyer said.

However, the bench observed that government wings were not expected to exploit workers in the guise of outsourcing. If the posts were temporary, why the services of the workers were being availed for years together, the bench remarked. The single judge’s observation that government and its organisations cannot indulge in exploitation of labourers by not paying minimum wages cannot be found fault with, the bench said. The counsel appearing for GHMC sought time to file a detailed counter affidavit in the matter.

The matter was posted to September 29 for next hearing.

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