Manpower reforms: Adityanath government moots new outsourcing policy

Draft policy being hammered out before being sent to cabinet for approval

The Adityanath government is mulling a new policy to protect the interests of outsourced staffers in Uttar Pradesh.

The new policy being hammered out is primarily aimed at preempting the exploitation of outsourced employees and streamlining the entire outsourcing process in different government departments.

Chairing a meeting to review the proposed outsourcing policy for services and human resource function on Tuesday, the CM directed officials to ensure that the policy in the works was pragmatic and facilitated hassle-free transfer of wages to employees.

He underlined that the service providers tasked for outsourcing were mandated for the general welfare of outsourced staffers with regards to medical facilities, wages etc.

The new policy will also require service providers to submit a copy of agreement with the outsourced employees, so that state authorities could also take steps to protect their interests at large and prevent their exploitation.

Meanwhile, the state government is also taking suggestions and feedback from various state employee organisations for incorporating tghem in policy draft, before it is sent to the cabinet for vetting and approval.

Of late, a large number of recruitments in the various government departments are increasingly being done through outsourcing to manpower providers. Since, there is no special policy framework for the purpose, the matrices of wages and the renewal of outsourced employees is rather opaque and in many instances creates controversies. It also purportedly leads to the harassment of youth in the name of jobs, while there is minimum job security and growth prospects.

Recently, the process of such recruitment in class IV grade at the collectorate and tehsil levels in the state had come under cloud and was later scrapped.

Meanwhile, UP ASSOCHAM'S secretary general V N Gupta told Business Standard it was a welcome step on part of the Adityanath government to consider the outsourcing policy. “It is inevitable that a growing number of administrative functions, apart from some core functions such as tax collection, policing etc, would come under the purview of outsourcing in near future. Outsourcing will definitely ensure flexibility in the hiring process and ensure better delivery of services due to competition,” he said.

Earlier, federal think tank NITI Aayog had in April 2017 suggested for the outsourcing of public services to pare dependence on the government administrative machinery. It had even recommended induction of specialists through lateral entry to spur competition in bureaucracy. The Aayog had surmised that dependence on government administrative machinery for the delivery of public services needed to be cut wherever possible.

The draft report was then also circulated among the NITI Aayog Governing Council (comprising state chief ministers) for possible action going forward.