BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Daily Wage Employees' Federation will continue to fight for the regularisation of services of daily wage employees who, it says, are being exploited by being made to work in government departments for meagre salaries.

Federation president K.S. Sharma spoke to The Hindu on Monday's Supreme Court judgment, which said that daily wage employees had no right to have their services regularised, no matter long they had worked in government departments.

Mr. Sharma said the federation would urge the State Government to promulgate special legislation under Article 31 (c) of the Constitution to regularise all daily wage employees who were presently on the muster rolls of various government departments and had completed ten years of service. The Government should continue the services of all daily wage employees till the legislation is framed, he said.

`Don't lose heart'

Mr. Sharma appealed to daily wage employees to not to lose heart because of the judgment. "We will join hands to launch a bitter fight for our rights and survival," he said. A meeting has been called in Hubli on April 16 for finalising an action plan.

It was the Dharwad District Public Works Department Literate Daily Wage Employees' Association, an affiliate of the federation, which spearheaded the movement for regularisation of services. A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the then Chief Justice, Ranganath Mishra, delivered a judgment in 1990 on a writ petition filed by the federation. It laid down the right of daily wage employees for regularisation on completion of ten years' service.

The Government, while implementing this judgment, in its order of August 6, 1990, fixed July 1, 1984 as the cut-off date for regularisation. This resulted in the regularisation of 60,000 daily wage employees who were appointed before July 1 1984.

The association continued the legal battle demanding that the cut-off date be scrapped and asking for regularisation of all daily wage employees who had completed 10 years of service.

Mr. Sharma said the present ruling had reversed the 1990 judgement.

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