Managing Outsourced Employees in India: Should We Renew Contracts or Start Fresh?

Our company has engaged outsourced employees all over India to cater to the fluctuations in work load (same nature of job – we have permanent employees too) . We have given 11 months contract (FTC). Would like to renew their services.
Should we renew their contract or give a fresh contact after a break.
If fresh contract, what should be the break in period?
Should we give new PF, ESI codes, Otherwise will it be continuous service

If you are showing continuous service, I hope you will encounter trouble when they claim Permanent Employment in your company. It is better to have some break in service to avoid future complications.

What do you mean by outsourced employees? Is it not employees engaged through a contractor? Then there is no need to give a break because between you (principal employer) and the contractor's employees working in your company, there exists no employer-employee relationship. Moreover, the renewal of the contract or a fresh contract, whatever it may be, has nothing to do with employees but is only between you as the principal employer and the contractor.

An important point, as far as I understand from your case, is that you have been engaging or outsourcing the job to a contractor, whereas the job is permanent or perennial in nature. If you follow the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, you cannot engage contract workers on jobs that are regular in nature. It is evident that a job in which permanent employees are also engaged is certainly a core activity of the establishment. If so, the appropriate authorities under the Contract Labour (R&A) Act, i.e., the State Labour Department, can instruct you to engage regular employees in the place of contract employees or abolish such contract labour. Therefore, study the issue and act accordingly.

Regards,

Madhu.T.K