PSUs asked to relieve retired, contract employees

Industries Department has detected that several retired employees and those who are on contract in public sector undertakings (PSUs) are continuing in the same post for long periods resulting in normal vacancies not being filled up.

 After the anomaly came to light, the Industries Department had issued an order to relieve all the retired employees and those on contract with immediate effect. The contract employees are appointed for a specific project and they are still continuing in the establishment even after  completing the purpose for which they are appointed.  Industries Department additional secretary Japabalan Oliver issued the order to relieve them and clarified on the procedures to be initiated for appointments except to the posts coming under the purview of the Kerala Public Service Commission.

Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board (RIAB) will continue with the appointment of managing directors in PSUs.

It was revealed that many companies have a significant number of contract employees and some of them have been recruited against regular vacancies. In many cases, the contract appointments have been continuing for indefinite periods.

Following the detection of the anomaly, the government directed that the appointing authority in all the PSUs would be the Board of Directors or the Managing Director or other officers of the PSUs concerned to whom powers have been delegated. All recruitment process will be handled by an interview board duly constituted by the company concerned, which include nominees from the Industries Department and RIAB.  RIAB secretary K Padmakumar said that the Board would supervise the procedures for appointments.

Those retired employees and those on contract and continuing in service will be relived within a specific time, he said.  RIAB will scrutinise the details of the vacancies and ensure that the selection will be made in a transparent manner. The government had issued an order regarding contract appointments for specific projects which states that the term of appointment should be mentioned and they had to be terminated on completion of the project.  PSUs have been asked to collect the data of all the employees, sanctioned post, details of contract employees and their termination period. The agenda of the Board Meeting should be submitted to the Industries Minister and the government nominees. 

Meanwhile, the recruitment process for appointing new heads for non-performing PSUs are in the final stage. Several experienced and qualified hands have submitted application and the scrutiny has been completed. Interviews for selection will start soon, Padmakumar said.