Pay panel favours uniform rules for contractual govt staff

The annual expenditure on contractual manpower in 2012-13 was about Rs 300 crore.

Seeking to address exploitation issues of contractual manpower in government jobs, the 7th central Pay Commission has suggested that the Centre come out with uniform guidelines for such recruitments.

The Commission, headed by Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, has also recommended that a database be prepared, which can enable the government to tap high-level retirees with deep domain knowledge for contractual appointments.

It noted that losing experienced high-level personnel entails unquantifiable costs as new recruits will require training and on-the-job skills.

The report, submitted to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday, said the feedback received by the Commission suggests that there is a general consensus that routine administrative jobs in the government can continue to be outsourced.

"In this regard, the Commission is of the view that a clear guidance from the government on jobs that can and should be contracted out would be appropriate," it said.

While doing so, the concerns of confidentiality and accountability may be kept in view, it suggested. "To bring about continuity and address the concerns regarding exploitation of contractual manpower, uniform guidelines/model contract agreements may be devised by the government," the report said.

As per the report, the annual expenditure on contractual manpower in 2012-13 was about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion).

While the expenditure incurred on contractual manpower is less than that of salaries for personnel serving in the government, "they are in their own right significant and also likely to increase in coming years".

This, the report said, warrants streamlining the existing regime governing outsourcing of contracted manpower, as has also been suggested by some ministries.

With a view to ascertaining retirements that would take place in coming years, the Commission reviewed the data for all ministries/departments in the age group of 50-60 years.

Of the total 33.02 lakh employees as on January 1, 2014, 9.48 lakh persons were in the age group of 50-60, who constituted about 29 per cent of the total manpower.