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Supreme Court Upholds Regularisation of Daily Wage Workers in APGVB
The Supreme Court upholds the regularisation of over 470 daily wage workers at Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank, marking a significant victory for workers’ rights and setting a national precedent.
Author: Saurav Kumar
Published: May 17, 2024
Daily wage workers at Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB) have achieved a monumental victory, securing their jobs as regularised positions.
The Supreme Court upheld the Telangana High Court's decision to regularise over 470 daily wage workers at Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB), marking a significant victory for workers' rights and setting a national precedent. This ruling represents a monumental triumph in what is considered the largest battle fought and won by daily wage workers serving rural communities through Gramin banks.
On May 13, the Supreme Court dismissed APGVB's appeal for the second time, reinforcing its previous decision from August 12, 2022. The initial ruling mandated the bank to create a regularisation scheme for workers with over ten years of service. The Supreme Court's consistent dismissal of the bank's appeals underscores the importance of this victory for the daily wage workers.
Unprecedented Victory of Workers
According to an APGVB banker, daily wage workers with 10 to 20 years of service faced rejection from the bank authorities when they sought regularisation. In 2014, these workers filed a case in the Telangana High Court, which ruled in their favour in 2018. The bank appealed this decision, facing defeats in both the division bench and the Supreme Court in 2022.
Following these defeats, the bank reluctantly created a scheme with adverse conditions to regularise approximately 100 workers, hoping to settle the matter. The workers challenged these conditions in a second round of litigation and obtained favourable orders. The bank, however, challenged this latest judgement in the Supreme Court.
Venketeshwara Reddy, the Secretary General of the All India Regional Rural Banks Employees Association (AIRRBEA), regards the ruling as an unprecedented victory for workers’ rights. He explained that the Supreme Court dismissed APGVB's appeal, upholding the Telangana High Court's orders regarding the regularisation of over 470 daily wage workers at Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank. This decision marks a significant victory for workers' rights and sets a national precedent.
He told Kanal, “The Supreme Court’s decision on regularising the daily wage workers will now serve as a strong argument for ongoing cases across India in the high courts of Odisha, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tripura, and Assam.”
Commenting on the workers' plight, he added, “Workers benefitting from the ruling have work experience ranging from 2 to 25 years. It has been a tough period of exclusion, fighting for their own rights.”
Image: Court order Upholding the Telangana High Court Order on Regularisation of Workers
Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank, a Regional Rural Bank (RRB) established in the year 2006 under an act of Parliament by amalgamating Manjeera Grameena Bank (Medak), Sangameshwara Grameena Bank (Mahabubnagar), Kakatiya Grameena Bank (Warangal), Nagarjuna Grameena Bank (Khammam & Nalgonda), Sri Visakha Grameena Bank (Visakhapatnam,Vizianagaram & Srikakulam) with Head Office at Hanamkonda, Warangal (Urban District) sponsored by State Bank of India. APGVB is operating in 21 districts of Telangana and 3 districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Regularisation of Daily Wagers - A Prominent Demand
The regularisation of daily wage workers is one of the key unmet demands of the All India Regional Rural Banks Employees Association (AIRRBEA), alongside wage parity, the formation of the National Rural Bank of India (NRBI), and filling 30,000 vacancies.
The Supreme Court’s judgement has brought new hope for the workers and is expected to set a precedent for the increasing demand for regularisation in various RRBs across the country.