It’s established. Government is a bad employer

The massive response to a report in DNA, that the Supreme Court (SC) has held that the government or its instrumentalities can’t keep an employee on ad-hoc basis for a long time as that would be “exploitation of labour”, shows the government is indeed a bad employer.

The chairman of a PSU sent emails and made long-distance phone calls seeking details of the SC judgment. A woman employee termed it a “land mark” judgment, while an employer said the verdict would create problems since he had scores of temporary workers.

It is apparent that the government doesn’t care for laws relating to labour welfare, public employment, fair play and fair treatment enacted by parliament, though it keeps chanting the mantra that it cares for the common man.

The core problem of the malaise of exploitation vests in the streak of ruthlessness. This criminal aberration is pervasive among a majority of people who have attained some position in employment or power.

It would be apt to recall a judgment by a constitution bench of then chief justice Sabyasachi Mukharji and justices K Ramaswamy, BC Ray, LM Sharma and PB Sawant in the early ‘90s in which the judges emphasised the importance of the statute and its regulations that empower an employer or the management to dismiss, remove an employee or reduce his/her rank. But the decision must be just, reasonable and fair, they said.

The right to public employment also includes the right to “continued public employment till the employee is superannuated”. S/he can be compulsorily retired or his/her services terminated, but in accordance with the “procedure established by law”.

All these rights are an integral part of the right to livelihood, which is an integral facet of the right to life assured by article 21 of the constitution.

The ruling of the constitution bench continues to hold water. But as it said, judicial discretion has also a vital role to play in assuaging the hurt being felt by exploited personnel. Known lawyer and columnist Rajeev Dhawan has said it appears there are 14 courts, the benches, within SC.