Work-life balance: Andhra Pradesh relaxes ban on employee transfers for 10 days

AMARAVATI: In a significant decision, the Andhra Pradesh Government on Wednesday relaxed an existing ban on the transfer of employees from May 22 to May 31, 2023 as part of its objective to promote their work-life balance and let them and their families lead contented lives. Superseding two of its earlier orders imposing the ban on transfer of employees, the State Government issued fresh guidelines and principles for transfers and posting for the year 2023 through a Government Order (GO Ms. No.71).

As per the order, the 10-day relaxation of the ban on the transfer of employees is aimed at ensuring ‘right placement of employees to secure optimum productivity and commitment to furtherance of Government’s development objectives’.

The State Government had, in the past, imposed the ban on transfer of employees (GO Ms. No. 116 dated 07-06-2022 and GO Ms. No. 122 dated 16-06-2022). The latest GO issued on Wednesday, which effectively supersedes the two earlier GOs, listed out the new guidelines for transfer of employees during the year.

Justifying the objective behind its decision, the State Government said in the GO that it was committed to the welfare of its employees and sought to promote work-life balance to enable the employees and their families lead happy and contented lives.

“In this direction, the Government’s policy is to ensure that every employee is posted at a workplace where she/he is most productive and contributes his/her best for improved governance and efficient delivery of public services. Further, overall, the Government is committed to right placement of the staff to improve efficiency and accountability in administration,” the Government Order stated.

Principles for Transfers and Postings:

The following principles may be adopted while effecting transfer of employees:

i. Transfers shall be effected only “on request” basis and on administrative grounds.

ii. Employees who completed 2 years of service at a station as on 30 April, 2023 are only eligible for request transfers and those who completed 5 years of service at a station as on said date, shall be invariably transferred.

iii. Service in all cadres at a station shall be counted while calculating the period of stay. Station means place (City, Town, Village) of actual working for the purpose of transfers and not office or institution.

iv. However, for State Audit Department, station means Office within the Zone as all their offices are situated in the District Headquarters only.

v. Preference will be given to below categories:

a. Employees with disabilities of 40% or more as certified by a competent authority as per the norms of “persons with disabilities”.

b. Employees having mentally challenged children to a place where medical facilities are available.

c. Medical grounds for the diseases (either self or spouse or dependent children and dependent parents) of Cancer, Open Heart Operations, Neuro Surgery, Kidney Transplantation to places where such facilities are available.

d. Widow employee appointed on Compassionate appointments.

e. Husband and Wife cases (only one of the spouses shall be shifted following the prescribed procedure). Once the facility is utilized, the next request can be made only after five years.

vi. All transfers affected by following the procedure where employees indicated preference for stations shall be treated as request transfers for the purpose of sanction of TTA and other transfer benefits.

vii. Employees shall invariably be transferred from their existing location on promotion unless no such posts exist at a different location.

viii. All vacancies in Notified Agency areas shall be filled first before filling posts in the non - ITDA areas.

ix. The employees (Local Cadres, Zonal Cadres) working in ITDA areas for more than two years may be transferred to the place of their choice subject to fulfillment of conditions stipulated in this GO, with due preference to the inter-se seniority among the employees working in these areas.

x. For the purpose of posting in ITDA Areas the following shall be the criteria:

1. The employees below 50 years of age.

2. The employees who have not worked earlier in the ITDA areas so far based on the length of service in plain area downwards.

xi. Besides ITDA areas, areas which are interior and backward with large number of vacancies shall be given preference while filling up of vacancies on transfers. HoDs and District Collectors shall ensure the same.

Procedure for Transfers:

a) The relaxation on transfers shall be effective from 22n May to 31" May 2023.

b) All the transfers shall be effected by the competent authorities as per the existing orders of delegation subject to the existing Government Orders and conditions prescribed.

c) The Head of the Department concerned is responsible for the implementation of the transfer orders in the most transparent manner possible without giving any scope for complaints / allegations. Any violation of these guidelines will be viewed seriously.

4. The following departments, which have unique operational systems may devise their own transfer guidelines relevant to their Departments subject to following the above guidelines. They include the revenue earning departments viz., i) Commercial Taxes; ii) Prohibition & Excise; iii) Stamps & Registration; iv) Transport Department, and v)Agricu1ture Department. They shall also complete the process by 31" May 2023.

5. The Education Departments viz., School Education , Higher Education, Intermediate Education, Technical Education and the Education Departments working under the Welfare Departments are exempted from the above transfer guidelines and they may also devise their own transfer guidelines relevant to their Departments with the prior approval of Finance Department.

6. The standing instructions on the transfers of office bearers of recognized Employees Associations as issued in Circular Memo No. GAD01-SW0SERA/27/2019-SW, GA (Services Welfare) Department, dt.15.06.2022 will apply i.e., not to transfer the office bearers of all the Recognized Service Associations in the State at State level, District level & Division/Taluk level until their completion of three (3) terms or nine (9) years of stay in a particular station.

7. The visually challenged employees are exempted from transfers except when they make a specific request for transfer. As far as possible, these categories of employees may be posted at a place of their choice subject to availability of a clear vacancy.

8. The requests of the employees having any charges /ACB/Vigilance cases pending against him / her shall not be considered for transfer. The Authority shall indicate the fact clearly against the name of that employee if there is any request for transfer.

9. The ban on transfers shall come into force with effect from 01.06. 2023.