Panaji: Contract staff in government departments who have completed 10 years of continuous service from the date of their appointment will be eligible for regularisation under the Goa (Contractual Employees Regularization in Service) Rules, 2026, notified by the government.
The government has also decided to ban further recruitment of contract staff in government departments, state undertakings and other government establishments.
The ban on contractual appointments, however, will not apply to recruitment for specific purposes such as consultants, experts and manpower with specialised skills.
Under the notified Rules, a contractual employee must be working in a post that is continuous in nature. Staff appointed in a government department through a private agency or for outsourced work, or on posts co-terminus with the life of a project, are not classified as contractual employees under the Rules.
The regularisation is a one-time measure applicable only to contract employees in Group A, B and C posts, subject to conditions. The employee must meet the eligibility criteria for the minimum educational qualification and be within the maximum age limit prescribed under the relevant recruitment rules.
The employee must also have been appointed through due process of selection for direct recruits, while the continuous service must not have resulted from an order of a court or tribunal.
Regularisation will take effect from the date of the order of regularisation and will be subject to satisfactory completion of the probation period. Services will be regularised against vacancies in sanctioned posts in the department. If the number of contractual employees being regularised exceeds the existing vacancies, additional posts will be created to accommodate them.
The seniority of a contractual employee whose services are regularised will be below that of the junior-most employee in the relevant cadre of the department, the Rules state.
Approximately 1,600 contract employees who have completed 10 years or more of service in the state are expected to benefit from the Rules.
Alongside regularisation, the government has extended Employee Provident Fund coverage to contract employees. EPF coverage is now available to contractual employees working in their respective departments who joined the establishment between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2026.
