Over the past two and a half decades, despite the change in ruling parties in the state, the conditions of outsourcing, contract, daily wage, contingent, time-scale and honorarium-based employees have seen little to no improvement. Successive governments, regardless of political affiliation, have followed similar policies, resulting in these employees never being regularized. Despite performing the same work as regular employees, they have not been granted equal pay for equal work or provided with the same benefits. Various state government departments, institutions, schemes, universities, and religious institutions like Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) utilize outsourcing and contract employees alongside regular staff but continue to pay them unequally and deny them benefits. The government, which should act as a model employer, is now seen as violative of labor laws for this disparity. Benefits like Provident Fund (PF) and Employees State Insurance (ESI) are not extended to many contract workers. Promises made before elections are consistently abandoned after forming governments.
The previous government replaced private agencies with a government entity, APCOS (Andhra Pradesh Corporation for Outsourced Services), and issued appointment orders to about 100,000 outsourcing employees who had been working for years. However, the current TDP-led coalition government is attempting to scrap APCOS and revert to private agencies, sparking protests. As a result, a study committee has been appointed. In Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 213 of 2013, the Court ruled that temporary employees doing the same work as regular employees must be paid minimum basic pay (time-scale). Similarly, under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, equal pay and benefits are mandated, yet successive governments have failed to implement this, exploiting these workers with low wages. Employees under Samagra Shiksha, National Health Mission, MGNREGA, Velugu, 108 & 104 ambulance services, Arogya Mithra, Kasturba schools, Thalli Bidda Express, AYUSH, AP SACS, and others are also denied even the minimum time-scale pay. Despite these provisions being implemented in the unified state era (since 2008), the recent YSRCP government restricted time-scale benefits to only direct contract employees in government departments, excluding 250,000 others in schemes and institutions.
These employees are now hoping that the current coalition government will reinstate the minimum time-scale policy. Unfortunately, neither the previous nor the current administration has provided even basic welfare schemes for them. Though the TDP coalition included promises for such employees in its manifesto, no steps have been taken to fulfill them. Even GO orders issued by the previous government to regularize 10,177 employees who had been serving since before 2014 were only partially implemented, benefiting just 4,000 workers in health and tribal welfare departments. Others in the education department, polytechnic contract lecturers, and various other departments were left out. Citing administrative delays and technical excuses, the authorities failed to regularize them. Punishing contract lecturers for bureaucratic failures is unjust, and even after a year of the new government’s rule, there has been no progress on this front. Employees working as contingent, part-time, daily-wage, and consolidated workers since even before 1994 nearly 30 years remain un regularised. Their families are left helpless even when they die on duty. For nearly 20 years, schemes like Samagra Shiksha and the National Health Mission have not implemented MTS (minimum time-scale) for any cadre of employees. Although central HR policy guidelines exist, they have not been enforced in any scheme other than two.
These employees should be regularized just like in other states. If they have been deemed eligible to serve the public for years, why are they not considered eligible for regularization? Only unified and determined collective struggle can resolve these long-standing issues. Employees must prepare for such collective action and participate in large numbers in the statewide strike scheduled for July 9 to demand justice.