Punjab government mulls absorption of 60,000 outsourced employees: Cabinet to take a call today
The proposal aims to transition outsourced Group C and D employees to government contracts and eventually absorb them into the workforce.
The Punjab Cabinet meeting at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence will decide on the proposal to absorb outsourced employees. (File Photo) In a significant move, the Punjab government is planning to absorb nearly 60,000 outsourced employees across its government departments by repealing a 2016 welfare law and replacing it with new legislation to transition them to direct government contracts and eventual absorption.
The personnel department’s proposal will be placed before the Cabinet meeting at Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence on Saturday afternoon.
The proposal seeks the repeal of the Punjab Adhoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees’ Welfare Act, 2016, along with the introduction of two new bills, including the Punjab State Outsourced Personnel (Transition to Contractual Engagement) Bill, 2026, and the Punjab Contractual Personnel (Absorption Against Sanctioned Vacancies) Bill, 2026.
Outsourced employees, who have completed five years of continuous service, will be taken directly on a government contract, as per the proposal. Those working in hazardous categories, such as sanitation workers, sewer cleaners, etc, will be eligible after three years. The transition bill will apply only to Group C and D employees.
The second bill aims at eventual absorption against sanctioned vacancies, but this will kick in only after the transition process is completed. It will cover contractual employees who have put in 10 years of service post-transition. The government also plans to withdraw various earlier instructions on the regularisation of contract and daily-wage workers.
The proposal further seeks authorisation for Mann to approve any amendments to the draft bills without referring them back to the Cabinet, indicating urgency in the matter.
The move comes against the backdrop of persistent demands by employee unions and several rulings by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has repeatedly questioned the practice of keeping workers on outsourced rolls for years while they perform perennial government duties. Courts have described outsourcing as a “veil” to exploit long-term workers and have ordered regularisation in multiple cases involving municipal corporations and other entities.
AAP government under pressure from judiciary, unions
Recent strikes by municipal outsourced staff, including a 16-day agitation that ended earlier this month after assurances from Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, have kept the issue alive. The government had then agreed to shift hazardous category workers to contracts after three years and set up a committee for further regularisation demands.
The 2016 Act had provided for regularisation of eligible ad-hoc and contractual staff and transition of outsourced workers to contract after three years, but its implementation remained patchy. Legal challenges and policy shifts have kept the matter in limbo for years, with many employees continuing in precarious outsourced arrangements through private agencies despite performing core government functions.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, had to take this decision, with financial implications, to win the confidence of employees amid pressure both from unions and the judiciary to address the anomaly. Officials said that the new framework will bring more structured engagement while addressing financial and administrative concerns of the state.
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