Shimla, Dec. 4 -- In a major structural shift aimed at insulating itself from a growing stack of Himachal Pradesh High Court verdicts, the state government has introduced a new Trainee Policy to ensure that employees appointed henceforth cannot claim pensionary and other service benefits for their contractual period.
The move follows repeated judicial directions instructing the government to extend financial and service benefits such as seniority, increments, GPF/EPF and pension entitlements to thousands of contractual and daily wage appointees from the date of their initial engagement, placing heavy financial liability on the exchequer.
The policy, tabled during Question Hour on Wednesday, replaces the term 'contract employee' with 'trai...