Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday ordered Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to consider the regularization of services of more than one hundred employees, working for the last many years against different posts. A division bench of SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon issued the orders in a petition, filed by more than one hundred petitioners, who submitted that they were appointed on daily wages and subsequently their status was changed to Human Resource Contract/Casual Workers and since then they have been continuously working without any interruption and/or break.

The petitioners have claimed that after conversion of their status, the SSGC created a pretense that they (the petitioners) are out-sourced personnel of third-party contractors and for these reasons their requests for permanent appointment/ absorption/regularization have been ignored. On the contrary, similarly placed employees working on Human Resource Contract were regularized /absorbed and for the purposes of enforcement of their fundamental right to life particularly Articles 9 and 25 of the Constitution, they have approached this court on 02.08.2018, for redress of their grievances.

The bench in its order stated that issues of employment through third-party contractors and regularization in service that has already been resolved by three-member bench of the Supreme Court in its various pronouncements, therefore, no further elaboration is required on part of the bench.

In our view, the bench observed that petitioners served the company for considerable period of time through the third party contractors and said period of service is more than sufficient to acquire expertise in respective fields.

Therefore, considering others while ignoring the petitioners, who are basically paid by the SSGC 3rd party contractor, is unjustified and against the principles of natural justice and equity, the court ruled.

The court observed that as regards the question that the petitioners are/were not the employees of the company, but of the contractor, suffice it to say that it is a normal practice on behalf of such companies to create a pretense and on that pretense to outsource the employment against permanent posts and it is on the record that the petitioners have been in service starting from as far back as 1995.

This all seems to be sham pretense and therefore it is not a case of any disputed fact and no evidence is required to record finding on the issue, the order stated. The court ordered the SSGC to consider case of the petitioners for regularization of their service, and directed that exercise shall be undertaken within a period of two months from the date of receipt of the judgment by submitting the compliance report.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019