PESHAWAR: The National Industrial Relations Commission, a quasi-judicial forum, has ordered the regularisation of the services of 12 employees of a subsidiary of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), declaring them part of the government-owned agricultural development bank.

Mohammad Zubair Khan of a single-member NIRC bench accepted the plea of Abrar Alam and 11 other employees in the ZTBL’s Peshawar Zone for their regularisation.

The petitioners stated that they had been working with the bank as security guards, naib qasids, and darbans for five to 17 years, but their jobs were still “temporary and contractual.”

Advocates Syed Hamad Ali Shah and Waqas Munir appeared for the petitioners, arguing that in 2011, the then-president of the country ordered the regularisation of services of the bank’s contractual employees, but they were not regularised.

Declares them part of ZTBL

They contended that the posts held by their clients were regular and not temporary, so they were entitled to be regularised.

The counsel for the respondents, including the ZTBL, insisted that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioners were employees of a company, Kissan Support Services Limited (KSSL), and not the ZTBL’s.

They added that KSSL was a separate legal entity with a service level agreement with the ZTBL for the provision of manpower, including drivers, naib qasids, darbans, and clerical staff, to cater to the former’s needs.

The KSSL, in its written reply, adopted the same stand, insisting that it was a separate entity with its own Staff Regulations, 2006, which had nothing to do with the ZTBL Service Regulations, 2005. It added that it was a service provider company providing manpower to the ZTBL under a bilateral agreement.

The commission observed that it was an admitted fact that the petitioners were working on the premises of the ZTBL, evident from the agreement executed between the ZTBL and KSSL on December 30, 2015.

It pointed out that KSSL had no separate office, a fact confirmed by witness Mohammad Muzamil Shah, assistant record keeper of KSSL, who was posted to the ZTBL’s Zonal Office in Peshawar.

“It was written in the MoU signed between the ZTBL and KSSL that the employees of the latter would not work for any institution except ZTBL,” it said.

The commission declared that from all those facts, it was clear that KSSL was a subsidiary of the ZTBL, and neither KSSL had any separate office nor did it conduct any commercial activities to generate profit and therefore, it was the subsidiary of the ZTBL.

It added that all employees of KSSL were actually working in the establishment of the ZTBL to perform its core functions and run its affairs.

The NIRC referred to two Supreme Court judgments, which declared that the employees of the contractor should be the employees of the company if the contractor engaged them for running the affairs of the company and not for some other independent work that had no concern with the production of the company.

“It is clear from the objectives of KSSL’s memorandum that it is a subsidiary of ZTBL, and its workmen are entitled to become permanent employees of the ZTBL,” it ruled.

The commission added that the petitioners had been working with the ZTBL for a long time as darbans, naib qasids, and security guards, and since those posts were permanent in nature, the petitioners had attained the status of permanent employees.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2024