Chandigarh: The Punjab government is reportedly considering a major policy shift ahead of the next Assembly elections by phasing out the outsourcing system for Group C and Group D posts in government departments and moving towards regularising existing contractual employees.<\/p>\n
According to sources, the proposal could benefit more than 1.25 lakh temporary, contractual and outsourced employees working across various government departments. The issue was expected to be discussed during a Cabinet meeting scheduled at the Punjab Civil Secretariat.<\/p>\n
Sources indicated that if approved, future recruitment for Group C and Group D positions would be made directly through government channels instead of outsourcing agencies. Existing employees working on contract or outsourced arrangements could be brought under a regularisation framework.<\/p>\n
Punjab currently has around 1.30 lakh temporary employees across departments. This includes nearly 70,000 contractual workers and about 60,000 outsourced employees.<\/p>\n
The education department has the largest number of such employees, with over 10,000 teaching and non-teaching staff awaiting regularisation. The health and family welfare department employs around 7,800 contractual workers, including National Health Mission staff, nurses and paramedical personnel. Thousands of sanitation workers, sewerage staff and daily wagers are also employed by local bodies, while departments such as Public Works, Water Supply and Sanitation have a significant number of contractual field workers.<\/p>\n
The Aam Aadmi Party government has already initiated the process of regularising around 36,000 employees who have completed 10 years of continuous service. Under the existing policy, priority is being given to contractual employees with a decade or more of service, while a separate framework is being prepared for outsourced workers.<\/p>\n
Soon after assuming office in March 2022, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had announced plans to regularise around 35,000 Group C and Group D employees. The Punjab Cabinet subsequently approved a regularisation policy in September 2022, and in February 2023 granted final approval for the regularisation of 14,417 contractual employees.<\/p>\n
The issue of regularisation has also gained attention in neighbouring Haryana. The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently directed the Haryana government to reconsider thousands of regularisation claims in light of a Supreme Court judgment delivered in April 2026. Employee unions continue to demand regular jobs, equal pay for equal work and restoration of the old pension scheme.<\/p>\n
The Punjab government’s latest move is being viewed as a significant step that could have far-reaching implications for government employees and the state’s workforce policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chandigarh: The Punjab government is reportedly considering a major policy shift ahead of the next Assembly elections by phasing out the outsourcing system for Group C and Group D posts in government departments and moving towards regularising existing contractual employees. According to sources, the proposal could benefit more than 1.25 lakh temporary, contractual and outsourced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[15386,15384,15383,15385,15382],"class_list":["post-65717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-punjab","tag-could-benefit","tag-d-jobs","tag-outsourcing-in-group-c","tag-over-1-25-lakh-employees","tag-punjab-govt-may-end"],"yoast_head":"\n