The Lahore High Court has ruled that daily-wage and work-charged employees serving in posts of a permanent nature at Punjab's District Health Authorities (DHAs) acquire the status of permanent workmen once they complete the prescribed nine months, whether or not the authorities issue a formal notification.
Allowing a batch of constitutional petitions, Justice Khalid Ishaq held that the Punjab government's 2021 policy on daily-wage, work-charged and contingent-paid staff applies to the DHAs and cannot be sidestepped on the grounds that they are autonomous bodies. The court declared the refusal to grant eligible employees permanent status unlawful and set aside the orders rejecting their requests.
The petitioners, including data entry operators, sanitary workers and a laboratory assistant, worked at public health facilities across Punjab. Most were first hired for 89 days and then had their contracts extended repeatedly for years despite the continuing nature of their work. Some had served since 2016 and 2017, and some said they had been removed by verbal orders while similar staff in other districts had already been made permanent.
Government departments argued that the DHAs were autonomous and not bound by the policy, with some citing financial constraints. The court rejected this, noting that DHA rules require their chief executives to implement policies set by the government, and drew a distinction between regularisation as a civil servant and recognition as a permanent workman under labour law.