Curious About Job Titles? Help Me Understand Labour, Employee, and Workman Differences

Understanding Key Differences

Kindly let me know the difference between the above-mentioned terms. I just want to clarify it, as I was asked this question in an interview. Please help.

Regards,
Curious Guy

Thank you, sir, for your quick reply. I have gone through the link given by you.

Employees, according to me, include all staff, including laborers and bosses, with each member working for a firm. Workmen are blue-collar employees, unskilled staff, etc. "Workman" also means the same as "workmen."

Please correct me if I am wrong.

So, the same thing applies to "Workman" and "workmen," does it not? You are right; "Employee" is a generic term. The term "Labor" has different meanings depending upon the context. Hence, kindly find out using the link that I sent.

There is no difference between labor, workmen, and employee. The terms are mentioned in different contexts within various acts related to employees, such as the Factories Act, Workmen Compensation Act, Bonus/Minimum Wages Acts, etc. Recently, in 2010, an amendment was made to the WC Act, 1923, where workmen are now referred to as employees.

Regards,
K. Prabakar

I agree with Mr. Simhan that the best way of learning is by going through the material by oneself. However, you need to understand the difference in meaning among the various words or expressions pointed out by you in the context of labor laws. A mere dictionary meaning may not suffice, as Mr. Prabhakar suggested. Try to find out for yourself.

Regards,
B. Saikumar
HR & Labor Law Advisor
Mumbai

Labour means daily wage manual labour engaged for work. Employee means a person employed. He may be a labourer, clerk, operator, technician, etc. In a general sense, people will be called the office staff as employees.

Definition of Workman

Workman means a person employed in the factory for any unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, highly skilled, technician, supervisor will be called a workman.

Definition of Workmen

Workmen means a group of workers.

Regards,
D. Gurumurthy LL.HR & IR Consultant, Hyderabad.

Thank you for your input. Kindly clarify my doubts. If in a factory of 50 people in Tamil Nadu, there are 30 machine operators and 20 management staff like admin, HR, quality supervisors, etc., will all of them be termed as employees, or will they be differentiated as workmen and staff? If they are not being differentiated, then, are all of them covered under the Factories Act, including staff? Please advise.

Thanks,
Rk

An employee is any person who enters into a contract of employment with his employer. Workers are mostly seen as unskilled or semi-skilled members of an organization in charge of the day-to-day activities of the organization. Please correct me if I am wrong, for this is just my personal view.

Labour means unskilled manual work. Labourers are persons who perform unskilled manual work for wages. An employee is someone who is employed in an organization for wages or a salary, and this category includes labourers. A workman is synonymous with a labourer, while workmen is the plural form of workman.

Note: Wages are received by those who are directly engaged in the production process.