‘Ensure benefits for non-regularised govt employees’

The apex court has come forward to ensure welfare and benefits of the employees -- who are under the master roll after completion of their services -- so that they don't retire with empty hand.

In the full text of a verdict, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court underscored the need for formulation of a separate rules to protect the future interest of such work-charged employees.

"In a welfare state of a government by the people and for the people should not return the work-charged employees at the end of the day with empty hand."

"It is the obligation of the state to take steps so that their lives do not fall in total ruination. For that reason, separate rules are required to be framed for the persons who have been working as work-charged employees, if necessary, for protecting their future interest so that they do not fall in total deserts at the end of their work," the apex court observed in the full text of verdict.

The 14-page full text of the judgement was released recently as a five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the then Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain (now retired) has delivered a short verdict on November 25, 2021 after disposing of five civil review petitions regarding future benefits of the work-charged employees.

"After toiling for the benefit of the government and the people continuously for a considerable amount of time, I.e. for 20 or more years, if the government leaves a work-charged employee to face the wrath of unpaid, uncertain and bleak retirement period, and we turn a blind eye to his miserable condition that would be totally unethical and wholly contrary to the constitutional philosophy of socio-economic justice," the SC judges said in the full text verdict.

The apex court judges said in the verdict that the work-charged daily wage and contingent paid employees are generally hired for a short time to execute a specific work. But quite a large number of such employees have been working for indefinite time spans stretching over years, they said.

"Since the writ petitioner respondents (work charged employees on master roll under the housing a public works department) have been working for a long time, it shows that the posts they were occupying were permanent in nature and not causal or temporary.

It further indicates that the services of the respondents are not only required but also beneficial to the department.

Given the lengths of service actually rendered by them, those posts have to considered to be permanent nature," the SC said in the full text of the verdict.

                            Contacted, Additional Attorney General Sk Morshed told The Daily Star yesterday that the attorney general's office has already sent a copy of the full text verdict of the SC to the ministries concerned for taking necessary steps in line with its observations.