Delhi High Court - Orders
All India General Kamgar Union vs Union Of India And Ors on 18 January, 2022
Author: Prathiba M. Singh
Bench: Prathiba M. Singh
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed By:Devanshu
Signing Date:20.01.2022
09:22:22
$~23
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) 1114/2022 & CM APPL. 3214/2022
ALL INDIA GENERAL KAMGAR UNION ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Kawalpreet Kaur, Advocate.
versus
UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Ajay Digpaul, CGSC with Mr.
Kamal R. Digapaul, Advocate for
UOI.
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
ORDER
% 18.01.2022
1. This hearing has been done through video conferencing.
2. This is a writ petition filed by the Petitioner- All India General Kamgar Union, on behalf of 10 Workmen who were working as contractual workers with the Respondent No.3-Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital which is stated to be affiliated with the Respondent No.2- Lady Hardinge Medical College (hereinafter as 'LHMC'). The case of the Workmen is that they were working as Data Entry Operators and were performing essential services during the entire period of the covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns during the first and second wave.
3. It is their further case that they were engaged through contractor/Respondent No.4- M/s Challenger Detectives, however, suddenly in the last week of November, 2021 they were informed that a new contractor/Respondent No.5- M/s Mausam Infotech HR Practice Pvt. Ltd. has been given the contract for supply of workforce and they were without W.P.(C) 1114/2022 Page 1 of 5 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:Devanshu Signing Date:20.01.2022 09:22:22 any notice, retrenchment pay or compensation, terminated from their employment. As per the case of the Petitioners they have been rendering services to the Respondent No. 3 since 2018.
4. This Court had the occasion to consider a similar matter relating to the LHMC in W.P.(C) 4834/2020 titled All India General Kamgar Union v. Union of India. The said writ petition was disposed of by this Court vide order dated 27th October 2021 with the following directions with regard to the engagement of contractual workmen through contractors-
"A perusal of the Report by the Committee clearly shows that there were several gaps in the recruitment of contractual workers and several reforms have been suggested. Accordingly, the steps taken by the Hospital and the further steps suggested by the Committee, are reiterated below, in order to maintain uniformity, transparency and consistency in the recruitment of contractual workers. Accordingly, the Lady Hardinge Medical College and Associated Hospitals as also other Central Government Hospitals, in order to ensure that no improper and corrupt practices are indulged in by the contractors, shall take the following steps, in respect of engagement of contractual workmen through contractors:
a. For selection of the contractual firm through GeM, two separate and independent committees, viz., Bid finalization committee and Bid evaluation committee comprising of non-administrative faculty members would be constituted;
b. The approval, if necessary, shall be obtained even from the Ministry for award of the contract, after the Bids are evaluated and finalized;
c. The hospital administration shall create awareness amongst the outsourced workers about their dues and statutory deductions. For the said W.P.(C) 1114/2022 Page 2 of 5 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:Devanshu Signing Date:20.01.2022 09:22:22 purpose, when they report for duty for the first time, a senior person from the hospital administration shall try and hold an interactive session in the presence of the contractor to sensitize them as to their rights and duties;
d. Proper and transparent criteria shall be fixed, and once the Contractor has finalized the workers, the administration shall also verify their identity cards and documents before they are allowed to report for duty;
e. Adequate administrative personnel shall be recruited in the hospital to deal with the contractual workers, and if there are any vacancies, steps to fill up the same shall be taken expeditiously;
f. Salary details of outsourced employees shall be displayed by putting up Boards in prominent places in the premises to avoid any chances of salary being cut or unauthorized deductions being made by the contractor;
g. A committee of at least two senior persons - one from administration and one from amongst the faculty members, shall be constituted to interact with the outsourced employees on a quarterly basis to check if they are facing any difficulties, including difficulties in respect of the salaries and other payments. The said Committee shall also keep a check on their efficient & qualitative delivery of services;
h. Suitable provisions shall be incorporated in the Service Level Agreement (SLA) to fix the accountability of the selected vendor in case of any violations of the SLA.
i. The Hospital Authority shall also ensure the verification of the educational qualifications as well W.P.(C) 1114/2022 Page 3 of 5 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:Devanshu Signing Date:20.01.2022 09:22:22 as other eligibility conditions by the vendor required, so as to ensure that the right person is engaged for the right job.
j. Every outsourced workman may be provided with detailed terms and conditions governing their engagement with the hospital, including the details of job requirements, attendance norms, leave entitlements, and facility available under the ESI, amongst others.
k. In accordance with the Committee's recommendations, salary slips may be issued each month to the outsourced workmen showing the breakup of admissible salary and statutory deductions, and the net salary payable through the Bank must reflect on the salary slips.
l. The Hospital shall also consider introducing a system of biometric attendance in respect of outsourced workmen.
m. Further, as per the guidelines issued by the CVC, rotational transfers of persons holding sensitive posts on a regular basis shall also be undertaken.
n. A complaint box shall be put up in a prominent place in the premises of the hospital, so that any contractual workers who have complaints against the contractors would be able to submit their complaints in those boxes, even in an anonymous manner. These complaints shall also be looked into, and action shall be taken within two weeks of receiving the said complaints.
12. The hospital administration shall ensure that the abovementioned steps are taken and are monitored on a regular basis. The responsibility for ensuring that the steps as directed hereinabove are taken, would be of the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, who shall ensure W.P.(C) 1114/2022 Page 4 of 5 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:Devanshu Signing Date:20.01.2022 09:22:22 that the contractual workers are not in any manner abused or misused, and the proper payment of their salaries, in accordance with the amount being released by the hospitals are, in fact, being made by the Contractors."
5. Considering the nature of the present matter, there is an urgency as all the Workmen are presently without a job and their salaries for the months of October, and November, 2021 are also stated to have not been paid to them by the Respondent No.3, issue notice to the Respondents.
6. Mr. Ajay Digpaul, ld. Counsel for the Respondent No.1/Union of India accepts notice. Let notice, in addition, be served to Mr. Bhagvan Swarup Shukla, ld. Counsel who has appeared for LHMC in the previous petitions. Both the contractors, Respondent No.4 and Respondent No. 5 shall be served through the Medical Superintendent, LHMC. Mr. Soorman Singh Negi who is working in the Statistician Medical Record Department of the LHMC and is also stated to have been supervising the Workmen shall join the proceedings virtually on the next date of hearing. The Lady Hardinge Hospital shall file an affidavit by the next date of hearing as to the steps taken pursuant to the directions issued by this Court as extracted above.
7. List on 25th January, 2022.
PRATHIBA M. SINGH, J.
JANUARY 18, 2022 dj/sk W.P.(C) 1114/2022 Page 5 of 5