Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay has directed the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) to treat 37 daily wage workers on par with 186 employees who were earlier granted temporary status and related benefits. The Court has also ruled that these workers be made eligible for the salary and allowances applicable to the 186 workers.
Swati Gaad and 36 others, employed as daily wage workers, had filed a writ petition seeking directions to the State authorities, including the SAG, to treat them on par with regular employees or those who had already been conferred with temporary status. The petitioners also demanded eligibility for salary, allowances, and all consequential benefits, similar to those extended to 186 employees through an SAG order dated 21 February 2019.
The State government had introduced the ‘Daily Wages (Grant of Temporary Status) Scheme’ on 14 May 1997 to regulate the conferring of temporary status upon daily wage workers. According to its clause on applicability, the scheme applied to daily workers employed in various government departments as of the date of issuance of the notification.
Subsequently, on 6 April 2000, the government modified the scheme, making it effective from January 2000. It also substituted the requirement of “should have rendered a continuous service of at least five years as on the date of issuance of this Notification” with the more inclusive phrase “who have rendered or on completing a continuous service of at least five years on or after the date of issuance of this Notification.”
Advocate Shivraj Gaonkar, arguing on behalf of the petitioners, sought parity with the 186 Lower Division Clerks (LDCs). In a detailed representation, he urged for a similar benefit to be extended to his clients, arguing that the workers who had already been granted temporary status performed identical duties and held the same designations as the petitioners. It was further submitted that the petitioners had each completed over five years of service and were, therefore, eligible for conferment of temporary status.
Despite this, after deliberations at various levels, the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs on 8 September 2023 rejected the proposal to grant temporary status to 41 daily wage and 65 contract staff of the SAG.
Additional Government Advocate Shubham Priolkar attempted to justify this decision by arguing that the petitioners were initially appointed on daily wages in 2011, but their services were discontinued in 2014. He added that the petitioners were reappointed on different dates in 2017, again on daily wages, on a purely compassionate basis, and have remained in service since.
However, the Court noted that the government advocate failed to demonstrate any material distinction between the 186 LDCs and Multi-Tasking Staff (MTSs) and the 37 petitioners. It observed that, although the petitioners’ services may have been interrupted in 2014, there was no dispute that they were re-engaged by the SAG in 2017 as daily wage workers. By the time they submitted their representation to the authorities, they had each completed five years of continuous service, qualifying them for ‘temporary status’ under the same terms granted to the 186 LDCs.
The Court ruled that the petitioners could not be denied this benefit, even on the grounds that the Scheme applied only to those working in government departments. It further emphasised that the 186 LDCs were granted temporary status by the SAG, and not by the State government, thereby supporting the petitioners' claim.