Job insecurity: RDA contractual staff await regularisation

Accuse chief minister Punjab of ignoring their plight

RAWALPINDI: A number of contractual employees working for Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) in various grades are struggling to get their jobs regularised even after the passage of five to ten years.

A senior official of RDA, requesting not to be named, told The Express Tribune on Monday that there were around nine Grade 17, two Grade-16 and one Grade-18 employee as well as more than 30 junior staff waiting to be regularised.



He said RDA management was the main obstacle in the way of their regularisation.

“Some of the employees have been working for the last 10 years without a proper contract,” the official said.

He said that around six gazetted employees had left the job so far because they were not regularised even after more than seven years of service.

The official added that the Punjab chief minister was the current chairman of RDA but he was only interested in the completion of the metro bus project and was not considering the problems being confronted by the contractual staff.

He said the employees were perturbed over the situation, adding that RDA management was not serious in resolving the issue.

The official mentioned that the Rawalpindi commissioner had also raised the issue with relevant authorities. “The authority’s management has been using delaying tactics,” said the RDA official.

He said that there were around 200 employees of RDA in total. “The government [in the recent period] issued Rs1 billion for the welfare of all the staff but the contractual employees were not given anything from this amount,” the official said.

Another employee, who has been struggling for more than five years, requesting not to be named, said it was regrettable that the high-ups had not bothered to consider the issue.



“They should try to understand our problems and at least those employees who have served for five or more years should be immediately regularised,” he said.

“We are constantly in a state of agony as we do not know, what will be our future,” the employee said, adding that” How can you work properly in such a situation,” he asked

RDA spokesperson Hafiz Irfan told The Express Tribune that the RDA authorities were concerned about the future of contractual employees.

He admitted that the contractual employees needed to be regularized, adding that a summary in this regard had been sent to the Housing and Works secretary.

Irfan said that “all the contractual employees will be regularised soon”.

When contacted, Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed said they were going to take up the matter of gazetted posts with the secretary Housing and Works to get them regularised.

However, he revealed that as far as lower grade employees were concerned, they were inducted in 2010 and there were no rules yet for their regularisation.

Only those employees which were inducted before 2009 will be regularised as per rules, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th,  2015.