Project employees of J&K led by T K Kaul got a reprieve from the court on the issue of their retirement age. The court has stayed the matter till further orders, S N Singh, a project employee from Andman Nicobar told Indian Cooperative.
“I have talked to Mr Kaul and he has informed me that the court has given them stay. Now this would be applicable to all of us”, he said with a sense of relief.
Readers would know that Project Officers connected to the apex cooperative body NCUI are up in arms against what they call injustice in the matter of retirement age. While NCUI staff members retire at 60, the project employees retire at 58.
Several of them have opposed their unjust treatment dragging the apex body to court in the matter.
But the admission of case by the Jaipur High Court on the issue of their service benefits has meant a bigger relief for the employees.
They were employed as regular employees with central pay-scales but in 2005 all of a sudden they were made contractual by the NCUI citing dwindling grant from the govt. Several employees have completed 18-20 years of job with a deep sense of injustice.
‘We are about 160. Sixty of us were recruited as regular employees while 100 of us were appointed on contractual basis. Those of us, appointed on scales cannot be reverted arbitrarily”, argued Singh.
NCUI, meanwhile has deputed advocates to defend its stand as its In-Charge CE argued” where is the case of fixing retirement age when their contracts are renewed year after year. They have too weak a case to sustain in court”, he underlined.