Hi Anu,
I am dealing with the contract management in my company. For paying PF & ESI the contractor is fully responsible. The contractor has to pay the PF & ESI to his employees. PF & ESI codes are given in the name of the company, how can a company pay PF & ESI to the contract employees with the company PF & ESI codes ? Company PF & ESI codes are to be used to company employees only.
For Example :- In my company none of our employees falls under ESI slab (Rs.10000), for that reason there is no necessity for my company to take ESI code to our employees, but we have hired contractors for providing security and housekeeping services, all the contract employees are below the ESI slab, so the contractor have taken both PF & ESI codes on the contractor name and he is taking care of paying PF & ESI to his employees.
One straight thing - Employee's Employer is responsible for paying PF & ESI. The reason for hiring contractor to provide services are remove such kind of headaches to Principal Employer. being a principal employer we need to have control over contractors so as to ensure the contractor is paying PF & ESI to his employees.
For any further legalities please check with act.
Regards
Pradeep Nalluri