RIGHTS OF CONTRACTUAL EMPLOYEES UNDER THE EXISTING SERVICE LAWS OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Abstract:

There are four broad categories of employees subject to the service laws of Pakistan. First, there are civil servants, then persons falling under the definition of workmen as provided in labor laws. Thirdly, we have statutory body employees and finally contractual employees. To enforce the terms and conditions of their service, the first category may approach the administrative tribunals created under article 212 of the constitution, and also to the Supreme Court in its appellate jurisdiction. The second category of employees can invoke the jurisdiction of labor courts including the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) to redress their grievances. The third category has further two sub-categories, employees governed by statutory rules and those governed by non-statutory rules. Whereas the former can appeal to high courts under article 199, and can also resort to service tribunals, the other sub-category, i.e., non-statutory employees have no such rights and are largely at the mercy of the employer, with the right to turn to the Supreme Court. The fourth category called contractual employees governed by a master-servant relationship, and having been wedded to the terms of the contract can take their grievance nowhere but to civil courts. This article will plead that in order to put an end to the exploitation of contractual/ non-statutory employees at the hands of employers, the archaic principle of the master-servant relationship will have to be redefined. Since the trend across the world is to recruit contractual employees as they do not become a liability to the employer in terms of post-retirement benefits, to make this option more attractive, changes will have to be brought in mechanisms put in place to redress their job-related grievances.