An important bill related to outsourced employees has been passed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The ‘Punjab Outsourced Employees (Contractual Appointment) Bill, 2026’ introduced in the House by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema paves the way for bringing eligible raw employees working in government departments and institutions through outsourcing agencies or contractors directly under government contracts.
According to the government, the main objective of this bill is to end the practice of mediation between outsourcing agencies and government employees. Under this, direct government agreements will be made with eligible employees, which is claimed to eliminate commission and mediation taken by the agencies.
The government estimates that about 26,000 to 28,000 outsourced employees of Punjab can benefit from this new arrangement.
Which outsourced employees will be eligible?
The bill has fixed the eligibility for bringing outsourced employees directly on government contracts based on their period of service and category of work.
Outsourced employees belonging to Group-C and Group-D belonging to the general category who have completed at least 5 years of continuous service will be eligible for direct government contracts.
In addition, the period of service has been kept less for employees involved in hazardous work. These include high voltage staff of the electricity department, sewermen, sanitation workers, firemen, fire drivers and fire station staff.
Employees working in these hazardous categories who have completed 3 years of continuous service will be eligible for direct government contracts under the bill.
Conditions also fixed for ‘continuous service’
The definition of continuous service has also been clarified in the bill. For eligibility, the employee will have to attend at least 240 days every year.
Along with this, completing at least 7 hours of duty every day is also included in the conditions of continuous service.
If an employee changes his agency, then this will not be considered as an interruption in his service. This means that the employee’s previous service will not be considered as an interruption due to a change from one outsourcing agency to another.
Holidays and some special circumstances will also not be considered as an interruption in service
The bill has made a provision that the gap in service during some special circumstances will not be considered as an interruption in continuous service.
The gap in work due to administrative reasons, maternity leave, natural calamity or epidemic will not be considered as a reason for ending the continuity of service.
With this provision, such employees will have the possibility of getting the benefit of their previous period of service, if they also fulfill the other conditions stipulated in the bill.
Salary will not be less than the net salary received earlier
The bill also makes provision regarding the salary of employees after coming directly on government contract.
The salary received under the new contract will not be less than the net in-hand salary received by the employee earlier. Along with this, the salary will be as per the minimum wage rules of the ‘Code on Wages, 2019’.
The objective of this provision is to ensure that the current income of the employee does not decrease after coming directly on government contract and he gets paid as per the legal norms of minimum wage.
Biometric attendance will be mandatory
After the bill comes into force, it will be mandatory for employees coming directly on government contract to apply for biometric attendance.
Through this provision, arrangements will be made to keep a digital record of the attendance of the employees and monitor the duty hours.
Contract will be valid till the age of 58
According to the bill, the government contract will be extended on a year-by-year basis. This contract has a provision to continue till the age of 58 of the employee.
With this, eligible outsourced employees are expected to get job stability for a long time, although other conditions of the contract will have to be followed.
Condition regarding pending cases in courts
A special condition has also been made in the bill for those outsourced employees who are already fighting cases in courts regarding regularization or other service-related demands.
Such employees will have to give an affidavit within 30 days to come directly on government contract. Only after this they will be eligible to come on contract under the new arrangement.
2016 law repealed
With the implementation of this bill, Punjab’s previous ‘Punjab Adhoc, Contractual, Daily Wage, Temporary, Work Charged and Outsourced Employees Welfare Act, 2016’ has been repealed.
Thus, a separate framework has been created for outsourced employees through the new law, under which provision has been made to bring eligible raw employees directly under government contracts instead of outsourcing agencies.
The Punjab government claims that this step will relieve thousands of outsourced employees from the mediation of agencies and they will get the opportunity to work directly under government contracts. Now after the implementation of this bill, everyone will be watching when and through what process the eligible employees get the real benefit of it.
