Contract Labour Act, 1970

Dear Seniors,

We are a construction comapany operating in all over India.

I have a typical query as mentioned below.

In chennai we are executing a contract for CMRL.

Being the main contractor we have obtained a licence under Contract Labour Act, 1970 for this project. our main site office is establised in chennai city.

Fortunately or unfortunately we have establised our casting yard at Thiruvallur dist. due to non availability of land in chennail. More than 20 contract labours are working in this premises but this is not a seperate establisment as this is supplimentary to our core contruction work at chennai (Structural items is being cast here and will be used at chennai work). All the workers in this establisment are covered under the contarct labour licence which is taken for 500 Nos. of workers. All of them has been covered in the payroll of chennai office. Their other registers under contract labour act is also being maintain at chennai office. Notice board and other compliance is also being maintained at chennai office and in the said casting yard.

The core issue is as the Licensing authority of both the district (chennai & Thiruvallur) is seperate. ALC, Thiruvallur is insisting us to take a seperate labour licence for casting yard.

I seek your remarks on this based on any of the SC/HC Judgements.

Dear Seniors,

We are a construction comapany operating in all over India.

I have a typical query as mentioned below.

In chennai we are executing a contract for CMRL.

Being the main contractor we have obtained a licence under Contract Labour Act, 1970 for this project. our main site office is establised in chennai city.

Fortunately or unfortunately we have establised our casting yard at Thiruvallur dist. due to non availability of land in chennail. More than 20 contract labours are working in this premises but this is not a seperate establisment as this is supplimentary to our core contruction work at chennai (Structural items is being cast here and will be used at chennai work). All the workers in this establisment are covered under the contarct labour licence which is taken for 500 Nos. of workers. All of them has been covered in the payroll of chennai office. Their other registers under contract labour act is also being maintain at chennai office. Notice board and other compliance is also being maintained at chennai office and in the said casting yard.

The core issue is as the Licensing authority of both the district (chennai & Thiruvallur) is seperate. ALC, Thiruvallur is insisting us to take a seperate labour licence for casting yard.

I seek your remarks on this based on any of the SC/HC Judgements.[/QUOTE]

If u are employing 20 or more contract labours on 2 different side ( not in the same Premises), if u look the labour licence format is mention on it that the Address were the Contract Labour are employed. You have to get separate labour licence for the different site , if their are operating in two different Premises. Even if the principal Employer are same
Just go through Licence copy carefully u will get u answer.
Regards,
Prashant Mhatre

Dear, As I understand, you have labour license as a contractor for Chennai site of CMRL. In addition you are having a casting yard at Thiruvallur District. It is not clear whether you have deployed your own staff or using sub-contractor's men. Assuming it to be your employees, it is clear that they are not your contract employees but your regular employees, hence Contract Labour Act is not applicable. but if the employees are of a sub-contractor, then you are the principal Employer and you need to register yourself to be so. At any rate no seperate license is called for. However by way of clarification, if a contractor works at different places under different licensing authorities, he is required to have different licenses. As per Section 12 of the Act, a contractor can undertake or execute any work by the contract labour if and only if he posssess a valid labour license. The territorial jurisdiction of the Licensing authorities are clearly defined by Gazette Notification and unless the sites are within the jurisdiction of the same Licensing authority, license issued by one authority serves no useful purpose elsewhere. In deed as per Rule 25(1) of the Act and Form VI, the License has to indicate the nature of work, the establishment and the place of work. Since Chennai Site and Thiruvallur works constitute seperate establishments, the Labour license at Chennai cannot obviously cover the Thiruvallur works. This is the plain interpretation of the words in the Act, I could not lay hand on any judgment of High Court or Supreme Court directly addressing this point. Regards KK

Dear Mr.K.K.Nair

Thanks for the reply.

As mentioned above you have rightly said CMRL(Chennai Metro) is the Principle employer and the construction companies are contractors. But, The construction work in chennai and casting yard in thiruvellur are Complementory and supplimentory to each other. we have clearly told the Licensing and ispecting authorities that the Principle employer who has awarded us the Project is CMRL and for the entire territoty of the project he is the owner/care taker, hence balance sheet & P&L account will be manage at chennai for the entire project cost.

Principle employer issued only 01 from V for this project.

As i said earlier also all the relevant compliances under the contract Labour Act is also being maintained at chennai office and casting yard with reference to the chennail labour license.

In the half yearly returns we have to submit, manpower details, Total Wages, total deductions ect. in case seperate licence is taken we need to bifurcate all the details but we reitrate that we are maintaing single balance sheet & P&L account as this is a single project based on tender.

We seek your valuable inputs further.

thanks

Dear Mr.Amar,
The Registration of the Principal employer and the contractors are done with respect to an establishment. In your case, the licence pertains to and is limited to the CMRL project area mentioned in the licence.
Thiruvallur casting yard was started after getting licence , and is obviously a premise where a manufacturing process is carried out and hence it comes under the Factories Act. So you need to get licence for the contract work being carried out in the Thiruvallur establishment.
Sanu Soman
Manager-HR

Dear Amar, I am still not clear as to whether it is your own employees or employees of your sub-contractor who are working at Thiruvellur site. Since the casting yard is not owned by CMRL, there is no question of CMRL becoming Principal employer. If there are sub-contractor's men involved then you bcome the Principal employer and you need to register yourself. You maintain P&L accounts for the two units together is no ground for non-registration of your Thiruvellur site.
Regards KK Nair