The Supreme Court is considering a labour dispute regarding whether the Central Government Health Scheme can avoid employee obligations by repeatedly changing contractors.
Reader brief
Through the Reader lens: A group of 267 workers has been employed at the Central Government Health Scheme since 2006, despite frequent changes in the external contracting agencies used. Although courts have recognized these workers as direct employees of the CGHS, a recent High Court ruling limited their backdated monetary benefits. The workers are now appealing to the Supreme Court to secure full financial compensation from their original date of engagement.
What to watch next
- Supreme Court ruling on the scope of monetary benefits for the workers
- Potential impact on government outsourcing and labour law enforcement
What was said1
Attributed, verbatim. Every quote is checked against the article it came from. One that does not match is not shown.
Rajiv Agarwal
1 quote“We have seen multiple cases where the government uses a layer of contractors to circumvent labour laws, including the contract law, to keep the employment terms ad-hoc and irregular. It is the principal employer but avoids shouldering any liability.”
In the article
…benefits flowing from findings that they were, in substance, employees of CGHS. Their case rests on the fact that their contractors changed, but the workers continued doing the same jobs under CGHS supervision. “ We have seen multiple cases where the government uses a layer of contractors to circumvent labour laws, including the contract law, to keep the employment terms ad-hoc and irregular. It is the principal employer but avoids shouldering any liability. This is one such case where the workers were employed for two decades by the CGHS. The contractors changed multiple times and the principal employer — who was the supervisory and the disciplinary authority and paid…
Sources1
- [1]The Hindu BusinessLineneutralCGHS workers’ case puts spotlight on government’s use of contractors