Although anything substantive has yet to be made public on the cabinet sub-committee’s progress on the study to assess the viability of regularising contract employees, surveys and reviews are underway. The cabinet sub-committee has been formed following the prime minister’s executive order. With around 5,000 contract employees in the civil service today, if regularised, they expect to enjoy emoluments and benefits similar to regular employees.
Out of around 5,000 contract employees, over 4,200 are on consolidated contract and the remaining are on regular contract.
As BBS talked to a few contract employees from various sectors, they expressed that the regularisation will help them have job security and benefit them greatly.
“I have been serving as a contract teacher for more than seven years. I feel that contract teachers who have served this long are equipped with better experience than trained teachers. As my contract is only for two years, upon the expiry of the term, I have to worry if the contract will be renewed. So, it will benefit us if we are regularised,” said Ugyen Cheten, a contract teacher at Loselling Middle Secondary School in Thimphu.
“Right now we are challenged with teacher shortage in schools across the country. Regularising contract teachers will help fill the shortage and meet the human resource requirement,” said Cheki Dorji, a contract teacher at Tsenkharla Central School in Trashi Yangtse.
“I have been serving as the HR officer for the ministry for five months now and I hope that the outcome of the study will be a positive one. Being a contract employee, there are lots of drawbacks. One thing is that the job is not secure. Secondly, we are not able to avail of loans from different financial institutions. And we get promoted only once in five years which, if we get regularised will not be the case,” said Ashish Biswa, a contract employee at the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
According to the Bhutan Civil Service Rules and Regulations 2023, contract employees need to serve in the same position level and are not eligible for promotion unless they serve for five years.
Moreover, entitlements like increments and extraordinary leave are not available for contract employees.
However, if the regularisation plan is through, regular employees question the very purpose of civil service examinations
“I am happy with the decision that the government has come up to regularise the contract employees. However, as a regular employee who had to take RCSC exams to get the job, I feel like it’s a little unfair for us. Moreover, even with the implementation, I wonder how standardised exams will be conducted since there is no proper direction,” said a civil servant.
BBS learnt that a survey questionnaire has been distributed to gather views on the primary concerns of contract employees and recommendations to address them.
The cabinet sub-committee has yet to share any details on the study. However, it said that it is diligently carrying out the study adding that it would share the progress and the ensuing plan of action by the end of this month.
Sonam Yuden
Edited by Kipchu
