The Legislature-Parliament on Friday endorsed the Civil Servants Adjustment Bill, setting criteria of seniority, permanent address and preference of the concerned officials for deployment to one of the three tiers of government—local, provincial and federal.

Senior officials will have the first choice of work station in transfer to vacant posts in the respective governments. If both husband and wife are in civil service, the government will adjust them within the same location if they so demand as far as possible.

The meeting of Parliament that resumed after the Dashain holidays endorsed the bill, which is a must to manage government staff as the local councils have been elected while elections to provincial assemblies have been scheduled. Officials working for local federal units will be automatically adjusted there.

According to the new law, any government employee older than 50 years who has served 20 years will have their service period added by seven years with pension for the added years paid at one go if one opts for voluntary retirement. Despite lobby from employees’ unions, the House did not grant promotion to staffers to be deployed at the provincial and local levels from the centre.

Though lawmakers had proposed promotion, the State Affairs Committee of Parliament rejected the call saying that it is the duty of a government employee to work where s/he is assigned. Hundreds of civil servants had got automatic promotion after the second people’s movement in 2006.

The Act, however, gives them options on salary and benefits. One can join provincial or local government service by agreeing to the salary and benefits provisioned by the respective services.

The newly endorsed legislation, which will come into force once the President authenticates it, authorises the government to seek clarification from any staffer failing to reach the assigned office within 35 days. It also permits the government entities to sack such officials based on Public Service Commission’s suggestions, if their clarification is not justifiable.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Ram Hari Subedi, commenting on the bill before it was approved, said every government employee “must be deployed within 24 hours” of deputation.