35 Interesting Questions Related To Contract Labour

Dear Friends,

Given below the section 20 and 21 of CLRA for your reading and conclusion on bonus liability of PE.

"20. Liability of principal employer in certain cases.-

(1) If any amenity required to be provided under section 16, section 17, section 18 or section 19 for the benefit of the contract labour employed in an establishment is not provided by the contractor within the time prescribed thereof, such amenity shall be provided by the principal employer within such time as may be prescribed.



(2) All expenses incurred by the principal employer in providing the amenity may be recovered by the principal employer from the contractor either by deduction from any amount payable to the contractor under any contract or as a debt payable by the contractor.



21. Responsibility for payment of wages.-

(1) A contractor shall be responsible for payment of wages to each worker employed by him as contract labour and such wages shall be paid before the expiry of such period as may be prescribed.



(2) Every principal employer shall nominate a representative duly authorized by him to be present at the time of disbursement of wages by the contractor and it shall be the duty of such representative to certify the amounts paid as wages in such manner as may be prescribed.



(3) It shall be the duty of the contractor to ensure the disbursement of wages in the presence of the authorized representative of the principal employer.



(4) In case the contractor fails to make payment of wages within the prescribed period or makes short payment, then the principal employer shall be liable to make payment of wages in full or the unpaid balance due, as the case may be, to the contract labour employed by the contractor and recover the amount so paid from the contractor either by deduction from any amount payable to the contractor under any contract or as a debt payable by the contractor."

Dear Punchbala

I appreciate your work for replying these questions ,the same movement members should try to find out the general answers themselves

after taking little pain of reading the concern act.

tks dear

Emerging trends in hiring of labour shows that contractual labour has become an important avenue for industries.
This article from Business Standard is worth reading:Radhicka Kapoor & P P Krishnapriya: Doing away with unequal contracts | Business Standard Column and comments by readers.

Mr. Umakanthan.M
I appreciate the depth of your reasoning in the discussion. It indicates your passion for the subject and your involvement in the work.
I have a query.
The contractors association and the contract labour unions have a wage agreement, before the DLC. The agreement witnesses enhancement of certain allowance from previous agreement. It continues to be applicable to all those persons and trades, who were receiving the allowance during the tenure of previous agreement. Drivers of outsourced vehicles never received such an allowance, which is specific to dust areas.
Now, drivers of outsourced vehicles filed a complaint and are claiming the allowance. PE stated that it was never paid and it was not applicable, as drivers are not working in factory area. The agreement does not mention any trade.
Do you think the allowance is payable.
KS Murthy

Dear Murthy,
Eventhough a settlement/agreement makes no mention about the trade in which a particular category of workmen i.e in this case contract labour is employed, any allowance granted pertaining to the special nature of duties will be applicable only to those engaged in such works and not to others. So, my opinion is that contract drivers can not stake their claim for dust allowance.

Hi All,
I ahve a doubt about the Casual employees employed
can they be employed in the core process of any factory?, is there any law which says they are not permitted to do the core process.
Kindly provide with valuable answer at the earliest.
Thank you
Regards
Smita

Dear Sir,
We have 7 workers working as contractors. The contractor has only 7 workers and is working only for us.
Are they covered under ESI ACT.
Request your guidance pl.
B Vijayakrishnan
9094007603

Dear Smita ji,

Your query is pertaining to Casual Employees and not pertaining to Contract Employee under CLRA.

You need to first understand the term 'casual employee'. Casual employee is an employee who has engaged on no regular basis on no systematic working hours. There is no guarantee to him to get work even for definite hours.

Apart from casual employees, there are employees engaged against leave vacancies, against absentees of a particular employees. In textile mills in Mumbai, there was a system of badli employees who were suppose to be remained present at gate in the begaining of every shift with no guarantee to get work.

Nowhere it is mentioned in any Labour Law that such casual employee, temporary employee, badli employee or leave vacancy employee should not be engaged in core activities, to my knowledge.

You need to answer me here. In case any skilled employee on core activity remain absent, can I not engage any casual employee who can do this core activity and allow to suffer my production?

Dear Sir,
We have 8 contractors, each having 7-8 workers engaged in our industry, does each contractor need to take licence from labour department, does we need to taker certificate of registration from labour department, does these workers cover under PF Act, ESI Act, payment of bonus act and payment of gratuity act,
Please clarify
M Srinivas
Bhimavaram

Dear Srinivas,
Strictly speaking, contractors having less than 20 workmen engaged in the particular work of the Principal Employer need not take contractor's licence under the CLRA Act,1970; but the PE has to obtain registration certificate under the Act.