Govt contractual workers bereft of social security, leave

Contractual workers employed with some of the Union ministries and departments are not extended benefits like Provident Fund, pension and other social security schemes, according to a reply to an RTI query.
The employees working on contract or those hired via outsourcing from different agencies don't have any provisions of availing extra leave apart from the mandatory national holidays and weekly-offs, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said in reply to a RTI petition.
The employees also have no provisions for annual salary appraisal and are continuing on the same salary for years, it said.
Moreover, after the end of their contract period they have to sit for an exam or an interview for the same post.

The contractual workers are recruited by the ministries or departments directly while outsourced workers are hired via contractors or agencies.
However, outsourced employees get PF benefit which is provided to them by the concerned contractor or agency through which they are hired, even though they do not get extra holidays.

"Workers hired through outsourcing do not get any holidays except national holidays and weekly-off," the Ministry said.
It also said that the PF scheme is not extended to contractual workers.
Till July 2014, a total of around 700 contractual or outsourced employees were working in the Union Ministry of Labour and its related bodies.

However, the ministry did not reply on the number of such workers in other Central ministries and departments.