Sukhbir Singh Badal demands Act passed during SAD tenure to regularize contractual employees be implemented

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday demanded the Congress government take up the Punjab Adhoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary Work Charged and Outsourced Employees Welfare Act, 2016, for immediate implementation even as he condemned the brutality being inflicted on contractual employees who were agitating for regularization of their services. The SAD president said it was shocking that the Congress government had refused to regularize 30,000 contractual employees since the last four and a half years even though the party had promised the same in its election manifesto. Also Read | Gold and Silver prices in India: Gold falls for first time in six days, silver declines too He assured contractual employees that the SAD would agitate and force the Congress government to implement these promises failing which their services would be regularized once Shiromani Akali Dal form government in 2022. Also Read | Petrol and Diesel prices in India hiked for second consecutive day Sukhbir Singh Badal said the erstwhile SAD led government had decided that services of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ group of employees who were working on an Adhoc, contractual, daily wage, temporary, work charge or outsourced basis under State government entities for more than three years would be regularized by the State government or its entities. He said the Act had been notified in the Punjab Government Gazette on December 24, 2016, but as the general election was announced in the first week of January 2017 the same could not be implemented. Badal said it was shocking that after taking over the reins of the State, the Congress government instead of regularizing these employees had ignored their genuine demand and refused to hold any talks with them. -PTC News