The Punjab government has urged Governor Gulab Chand Kataria to approve an ordinance that entails a long-pending measure to end the exploitation of thousands of outsourced employees and pave the way for their direct contractual engagement with the state government.
The Punjab State Outsourced Personnel Transition to Contractual Engagement Ordinance, 2026, was approved by the state Cabinet on July 13, 2026.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said here on Saturday that the Bhagwant Mann-led state government has consistently prioritised employment generation and workers’ welfare, and accused the previous Congress and Akali Dal-BJP regimes of “institutionalising contractor-based exploitation”.
Cheema said, “The ordinance, which was approved by the Punjab Cabinet on July 13, 2026, will facilitate the transition of thousands of long-suffering outsourced workers — including sanitation workers, sewer workers, and power board staff — into direct contractual engagement with the state government, effectively ending their exploitation by third-party contractors.”
Expressing concerns that the “file has been pending at Lok Bhavan for 12 days”, the finance minister urged the governor to sign it promptly to grant urgent relief to thousands of families and workers across the state.
Cheema said the Mann government began its tenure by committing 30,000 government posts in the very first cabinet meeting in March 2022.
Contrasting this with employment generation under governments in the last three decades, he said, “Earlier regimes typically advertised government jobs only in their fourth year. The Bhagwant Mann government has provided more than 66,000 government jobs in just four years and five months, and further recruitment drives will be undertaken during the remaining months of this government’s term.”
Speaking on the ordinance, Cheema said, “The contractual outsourcing system introduced by previous Congress and Akali Dal-BJP governments has subjected young professionals to years of financial and professional exploitation, with many serving through contractors for five to eleven years. Once the governor approves the ordinance, individual government departments will systematically absorb eligible outsourced workers onto direct state contracts based on the prescribed criteria.
