CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has issued notice returnable within six weeks to the State Government on a petition seeking intervention against discrimination in revision of remuneration of its contractual and regular employees.
The Single Judge Bench of Justice Biswanath Rath issued the notices to the secretaries of General Administration, Finance and Law departments on the petition filed by Odisha Government Contractual Employees’ Association (OGCEA). The case assumes significance as there are more than 50,000 contractual employees in the Group B and D services of the Government.
In the petition, OGCEA sought quashing of the Government’s order on 25 per cent (pc) enhancement in remuneration of contractual employees against 257 pc in the case of regular employees under Odisha Revised Scale of Pay Rules, 2017.
However, Justice Rath refused to grant a stay order at this stage after advocate Biswabihari Mohanty argued the case for OGCEA during the hearing on the matter through video conferencing on Friday.
OGCEA president Bijay Kumar Malla argued in his petition that it is grossly illegal, arbitrary, unjust and improper to revise the remuneration of contractual and regular employees with a different standard and multiplier when the contractual employees have been recruited through regular selection process and are discharging the same duty as that of their counterparts in the regular category.
OGCEA, which represents contractual employees in Group B, C and D services, has sought direction to the Government to revise their remuneration by applying the principle of equality and equal pay for equal work and grant all consequential financial benefit as per the law decided by the Supreme Court in State of Punjab vs. Jagjit Singh in 2017.