ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) held that field workers were not regular employees of the State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan under Regulation 2(c) of the State Life Employees (Service) Regulations, 1973.
In an eight-page judgment authored by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, the court stated: “We have found ourselves in unison with the view taken in the judgment (of the Supreme Court in CPLA No. 868-K of 2002 and CPLA No. 869-K of 2002) therein that the field workers were not the regular employees of the petitioner/ corporation as defined under Section 2 (c) of the Regulations, 1973, which defines an employee as a full-time employee of the corporation on a monthly salary but does not include salaried field officials whose emoluments are dependent on procuration and fetching of the business.”
The FCC observed that the contractual arrangements for sales managers, sales officers and sales representatives were distinct from those applicable to employees under the State Life Employees (Service) Regulations, 1973. It held that they fell within the definition of field workers, as their earnings were based on the percentage or commission payable in relation to the insurance policies and clients they procured.
Brief facts that gave rise to the filing of this petition are Agha Sohail Kamran (Secretary General of State Life Field Workers Association) filed an application for registration of trade union; i.e., State Life Field Workers Association which was allowed and the registration Certificate No.4/ 2013 dated 31.12.2013 was issued.
This fact came into the notice of the State Life Corporation in 2014, when the said State Life Field Workers Association filed an application under section 19 of the Industrial Relations Act, 2012 to declare it as the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) of the State Life Corporation. However, the same was rejected on 21.04.2021 while holding that the field workers were not the permanent employee of the Corporation. The order was not assailed before the higher authority.
Meanwhile, the Corporation filed an application under section 11 of IRA, 2012 for cancellation of registration of the Workers Association before the Registrar, Trade Union NIRC as trade union, inter alia, on the grounds that field workers were not the employees of the Corporation under Regulation 2(c) of the State Life Employees (Service) Regulations, 1973. However, the said application was dismissed on 11.03.2019. The State Life Corporation assailed that order before Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, which was dismissed, hence this petition.
The counsel for the petitioner contended before a FCC three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan that in the employment contract it is specifically mentioned that the field workers were not the employees of the petitioner-corporation, therefore, prays for setting aside the order impugned before this Court.
Conversely, counsel for the respondent (General Secretary of the Association) submitting that under section 2 IRA, 2012, a worker and workman is defined as a person engaged for remuneration directly or through a contractor without limiting his relationship to a regular employee or to any particular mode of payment, therefore, the respondents are employees of the petitioner-corporation since they get remuneration of their commission in lieu of their service, though not acting as a regular staff of the State Life Corporation but exercising the functions under its supervisory control.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026