SHC tells SSGC to consider contract employees’ cases for regularisation

The Sindh High Court on Monday directed the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to consider the cases of contract employees for regularisation without discrimination and in accordance with the law and a Supreme Court judgment.

The contract employees have approached the court for the regularisation of service, submitting that they were appointed in different grades to vacant posts on wages from 1992 to 2012 and they were eligible to be regularised under the office memorandum of August 29, 2008, issued by the establishment division.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that the SSGC was not regularising them on the premise that they were not their employees, but the employees of a third- party contractor. They said the petitioners had been continuously working on permanent posts in the SSGC and contended that superior courts had already passed judgments in identical cases in which contract employees were regularised.

They also referred recent judgment of SHC in which court had directed the SSGC to consider the cases of more than 170 contract employees for regularisation within two months without discrimination and in accordance with the law and a Supreme Court judgment.

The proposition has been conceded by the SSGC counsel; however, they submitted that there were certain persons who were neither employees of the SSGC nor they were being paid through contractors.

They said the decision of the high court and the Supreme Court shall not be applicable to these persons. A division bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, observed that the issue involved in the petitions stand squarely covered by the decisions of the high court and the Supreme Court.

The court directed the SSGC to consider cases of the petitioners for the regularisation of their service under the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. It clarified that the order of the court would not be applicable to those persons who were neither the temporary employees of the SSGC nor were being paid/hired through contractors. The court directed the SSGC to submit a compliance report through the member inspection team within three months.