High Court issues 14 pointer steps for hiring Contractual Staff in Central Govt Hospitals

The Delhi High Court bench comprising of Justice Pratibha M. Singh, has directed 14 pointer guidelines "in order to maintain uniformity, transparency and consistency in the recruitment of contractual workers."

The steps are as follows-

"a. For selection of the contractual firm through GeM, two separate and independent committees, viz., Bid finalization committee and Bid evaluation committee comprising of non-administrative faculty members would be constituted;

b. The approval, if necessary, shall be obtained even from the Ministry for award of the contract, after the Bids are evaluated and finalized;

c. The hospital administration shall create awareness amongst the outsourced workers about their dues and statutory deductions. For the said purpose, when they report for duty for the first time, a senior person from the hospital administration shall try and hold an interactive session in the presence of the contractor to sensitize them as to their rights and duties;

d. Proper and transparent criteria shall be fixed, and once the Contractor has finalized the workers, the administration shall also verify their identity cards and documents before they are allowed to report for duty;

e. Adequate administrative personnel shall be recruited in the hospital to deal with the contractual workers, and if there are any vacancies, steps to fill up the same shall be taken expeditiously;

f. Salary details of outsourced employees shall be displayed by putting up Boards in prominent places in the premises to avoid any chances of salary being cut or unauthorized deductions being made by the contractor;

g. A committee of at least two senior persons – one from administration and one from amongst the faculty members, shall be constituted to interact with the outsourced employees on a quarterly basis to check if they are facing any difficulties, including difficulties in respect of the salaries and other payments. The said Committee shall also keep a check on their efficient & qualitative delivery of services;

h. Suitable provisions shall be incorporated in the Service Level Agreement (SLA) to fix the accountability of the selected vendor in case of any violations of the SLA.

i. The Hospital Authority shall also ensure the verification of the educational qualifications as well as other eligibility conditions by the vendor required, so as to ensure that the right person is engaged for the right job.

j. Every outsourced workman may be provided with detailed terms and conditions governing their engagement with the hospital, including the details of job requirements, attendance norms, leave entitlements, and facility available under the ESI, amongst others.

k. In accordance with the Committee's recommendations, salary slips may be issued each month to the outsourced workmen showing the breakup of admissible salary and statutory deductions, and the net salary payable through the Bank must reflect on the salary slips.

l. The Hospital shall also consider introducing a system of biometric attendance in respect of outsourced workmen.

m. Further, as per the guidelines issued by the CVC, rotational transfers of persons holding sensitive posts on a regular basis shall also be undertaken.

n. A complaint box shall be put up in a prominent place in the premises of the hospital, so that any contractual workers who have complaints against the contractors would be able to submit their complaints in those boxes, even in an anonymous manner. These complaints shall also be looked into, and action shall be taken within two weeks of receiving the said complaints"

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This comes after some of the contractual staff, who were employed at the Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, approached the court challenging their illegal termination of services. They submitted that while they were earlier engaged by one Contractor, and working at the Hospital since 2015, when the new contractor stepped in, their services were terminated. It has been alleged in the petition that the new contractor demanded money in exchange of keeping them employed at their previous positions.

In an interim relief, the HC had earlier asked the new contractor to engage the service of the petitioners and pay them salaries and not to terminate them.

Considering such a grievance made against such a reputed hospital the court had directed the Secretary of Union Health Ministry to look into the matter and submit a report before the court. Following this, a report was placed on record and the report was s forwarded to the Committee constituted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for suggesting further action to be taken on the Enquiry Report.

Consequently, a report dated 19th October 2020, on the actions proposed and measures taken on the Enquiry Report, was also filed by the Hospital and all the parties were allowed to peruse the same.

After perusing the report, the Court noted that in a large number of labor-related matters, allegations are raised by the Workmen that once the contractor has changed, the new contractors demand lump-sum amounts from the proposed employees who are to be engaged. The bench also took note of the steps taken by the Hospital and further steps suggested by the Committee.

Finally, the court noted, "A perusal of the Report by the Committee clearly shows that there were several gaps in the recruitment of contractual workers and several reforms have been suggested."

Accordingly, the Court directed the LHMC along with other Central Government Hospitals to follow the steps mentioned earlier to ensure that no improper and corrupt practices are indulged in by the contractors.

"The hospital administration shall ensure that the abovementioned steps are taken and are monitored on a regular basis. The responsibility for ensuring that the steps as directed hereinabove are taken, would be of the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, who shall ensure that the contractual workers are not in any manner abused or misused, and the proper payment of their salaries, in accordance with the amount being released by the hospitals are, in fact, being made by the Contractors," clarified the order dated 27.10.2021.

To read the court order, click on the link below.

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/delhi-high-court-contractual-posts-163201.pdf

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