The Labour Department is functioning without a head in all the districts in Andhra Pradesh.
The government has not filled the post of Deputy Commissioner of Labour (DCL), and is managing the show with the Assistant Commissioner of Labour (ACL). The posts of Joint Commissioner (Labour) at the zonal level are also lying vacant. The JCL of Eluru zone is holding the post at the head office as an additional charge.
The Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board Board, is a JCL-rank post, and the government has made Special Commissioner (Labour) G. Rekha Rani in-charge Secretary.
The Guntur JCL will retire from service in one month and the JCL in Visakhapatnam will demit office in one year. The government cannot fill these posts unless there are DCLs. With no promotions in the recent past, all the DCL posts are lying vacant, sources say.
According to information, the situation has arisen as the issue of division of the State cadre posts in the department between the successor States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has not been addressed till date.
There is a dispute over the integrated seniority list of the officers of the two States. The delay in division of employees has been impacting the department. About 20 to 30 officer posts are lying vacant in the department, the sources say.
The successive governments’ decision on restructuring the department and the subsequent bifurcation of the State have a cascading effect. In the process of restructuring the department, the post of Labour Officer has been upgraded as ACL, and promotions have been given to the latter by treating them as multi-zonal posts.
When a section of the officers challenged this, the A.P. Administrative Tribunal said that designating the ACLs as multi-zonal posts was not in accordance with the Presidential Order, and directed that the posts be treated as State cadre posts.
“The government has to take the bifurcation issues to a logical conclusion to address the problem,” says an official on condition of anonymity.