Workers' fate uncertain after contract law repeal

Warns that large-scale unemployment would create serious social and economic problems

RAWALPINDI:

The repeal of the Punjab Contract Employees Regularisation Act 2018 has triggered fears of unemployment among around 30,000 teachers and non-teaching staff who have been serving in the education department and other government institutions for the past 11 years.

Of the affected employees, 14,000 are teachers and 16,000 are non-teaching staff. Their contracts are set to expire between January 10 and January 20.

Under the now-repealed Regularisation Act 2018, these contract employees—including teachers, assistant education officers, and non-teaching staff—had been receiving continuous contract extensions.

With the repeal of the Act itself, the legal avenue for extending the contracts of these 30,000 employees has been closed. These employees were recruited between 2014 and 2018 and have continued to serve on a contract basis to date.

The cancellation of the contracts has placed the threat of termination over the employees. Teachers' organisations have strongly opposed the repeal of the Act and what they described as the looming threat of dismissals, demanding immediate regularisation of all affected staff.

Educators Association central leader Malik Amjad, district president Basharat Iqbal Raja, and Akhyan Gul said that these are not just 30,000 employees but 30,000 families with children.

They warned that large-scale unemployment would create serious social and economic problems.

They urged the government to abandon what they termed anti-employee policies and regularise all employees immediately.

They added that a large number of women employees are among those affected and warned of province-wide protests if dismissals take place.

Meanwhile, education department sources said that after the end of the contract system, permission has been sought to retain these employees temporarily on a lump-sum salary basis. Under this arrangement, their status would be similar to daily-wage workers, with only a lump-sum salary and no allowances, benefits, facilities, or leave entitlements as compared to earlier.