Struggling with Off-Roll Staffing Agreements? How to Manage Client Demands and Company Rolls

I am a consultant. Three months ago, I started my company. Now, I have an opportunity to grow, but I am facing a problem in seizing this opportunity. One of my clients requires 30 sales and 50 delivery in-charge staff off-rolls, and I have no idea how to prepare the agreement part and handle the staff on our company rolls. Please help me.

The term "OFF ROLL" is coined by us to engage in illegal activities. If employees are put on off-roll status, they are not entitled to ESI and PF benefits and may not adhere to any regulations regarding compensation, etc.

How can there be an agreement to provide off-roll labor? While off-roll practices persist, it is not permissible to hire individuals off-roll.

Thank you.

The term "OFF ROLL" has been coined by us for engaging in unlawful activities. If individuals are employed off the roll, they avoid paying ESI and PF and do not comply with any statutory acts regarding compensation, etc.

Entering into an Agreement for Off-Roll Labor

How can one enter into an agreement to provide OFF roll labor? Despite such practices continuing, it is illegal to hire individuals off the roll.

Understanding HR Regulations

Your post merely validates the statement, "There is a limit to knowledge but no limit to ignorance." By making assumptions and presenting fiction, you risk offending those involved. HR regulations and statutes do not differentiate between off-roll and on-roll employment. If you have encountered situations as described, they may have arisen from either intentional non-compliance with regulations or ignorance. Such issues can also occur with on-roll employment, for which outsourcing practices as a principal should not be blamed.

Legal Considerations

Your assertion contradicts this principle in legal terms, as there is specific legislation addressing this known as the "Contract Labour Act (R&A), 1970." I recommend referring to it for clarity on your concerns.

Please exercise caution and ensure you have ample information before making public statements.

Regards,

Thank you for your posting and updating my knowledge. I would like to know under which section of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, there is a provision for OFF-ROLL appointment. As you have given a reference to the said act, please provide me with the section so that I can consider you as my mentor. If you know of any other act that legalizes OFF-ROLL appointments, you may also mention that.

Dear Arnab, Thank you for your posting and updating my knowledge. I would like to know from you under which section of the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970, there is a provision for Off-Roll appointment. As you have referenced the said act, please provide me with the section so that I can consider you as my mentor. If you know of any other act that legalizes Off-Roll appointments, you may also quote that.

Clarification on Off-Roll Appointments

Dear Mr. Malik, The CLRA does not have any separate clause on "Off-Roll Appointment" but on a whole, it refers to the employment of "Workmen" on the payroll of the "Contractor" and deployed at the premises of the "Principal Employer."

Following the spirit of the referred act, it means that the "Contract Workmen" are the employees of the contractor who engages them on the premises of the principal employer (the client company of the Contractor). Now, since the workmen and the principal employer do not have any employment relationship between them, i.e., the workmen engaged by the contractor, though serving the principal employer, are not considered to be on the payroll of the principal employer. This is commonly referred to as "Off-Roll" employment or "Contract Workmen."

The point on which we initiated our discussion was purely within the purview of this point of reference.

Please do not get confused about the term "Abolition" as mentioned in the act. It states that the term is not to abolish the concept of "Contract Labour" but to bring it within a set structure of enactment to prohibit the exploitation of workmen.

Regards

This is contract labor, where the employer will have registration, and the contractor will take a license. It cannot be called OFF ROLL because they are on the roll of the contractor. I have been in this field for the last 34 years, and in many companies, I myself dealt with off-roll situations, where the employer does not show them on record and does not provide any benefits. You can take any city or industrial area, and you will find that 40% of labor is OFF roll, where they do not receive any benefits from the employer.

Even contractors who provide manpower to companies have more than 50% of labor off Roll to save PF and ESI benefits given to employees. Please do not mix contract labor with OFF-roll labor. You see the big contractors who provide security services to companies have more than 50% OFF ROLL, which means they are assigned important security duties of the company, yet they are classified as OFF-roll. Then, what is this OFF-roll? Is it not illegal activities?

Understanding the CLRA and Off-Roll Employment

The CLRA does not have any separate clause on "Off Roll Appointment," but on a whole, it refers to the employment of "Workmen" on the payroll of the "Contractor" and deployed at the premises of the "Principal Employer." According to the spirit of the referred act, it means that the "Contract Workmen" are the employees of the contractor who engages them on the premises of the principal employer (the client company of the Contractor). Now, since the workmen and the principal employer do not have any employment relationship between them, i.e., the workmen engaged by the contractor serve the principal employer but are not considered to be on the payroll of the principal employer. This is what we commonly refer to as "Off Roll" employment or "Contract workmen."

The point on which we initiated our discussion was purely within the purview of this point of reference. Now, please don't get confused about the term "Abolition" as mentioned in the act. It states that the term is not to abolish the concept of "Contract Labor" but to bring it within a set structure of enactment to prohibit the exploitation of workmen.

Regards

Dear Malik Sir,

This is contract labor, where the employer will have registration, and the contractor will take a license. It cannot be called OFF ROLL because they are on the roll of the contractor. I have been in this field for the last 34 years, and in many companies, I myself dealt with off-roll situations where the employer does not show them on record and does not provide any benefits. In any city or industrial area, you will find 40% of labor being off-roll, where they do not receive any benefits from the employer. Even contractors who provide manpower to companies have more than 50% of labor as off-roll to avoid PF and ESI benefits given to employees.

Please do not mix contract labor with off-roll labor. You can see that big contractors who provide security services to companies have more than 50% off-roll employees, meaning they are provided on important security duties of the company but are still considered off-roll. What does off-roll mean? Is it not involving illegal activities?

In respect of the principal employer, are the "Contract Labor" not off-rolls? The point our friend was making in the post was clearly intended to refer to CLRA. In case he, as the contractor, and his client wish to staff "off-rolls," i.e., on the payroll of the contractor, and the applicable norms of enactments and statutory requirements are met, it makes no sense to address it as "illegal."

Is the knife to be blamed if it is used to harm instead of being used positively? Definitely not. The hands are to be blamed or praised in their respective cases. I agree with the points you raised, but I believe that all those points are examples of mishandling the act, and we cannot label the fundamental concept as "illegal" itself.

Regards.

I have a consultancy firm, and we have a contractor as one of our clients. He has many off-roll employees, and now he intends to get all of them on-roll to fulfill the legal compliance. However, the problem is that most of them are 'daily wage laborers'. For example, if some laborers have worked with the contractor today, there is no certainty that they will come the next day or not, and all of them want daily fixed cash payment.

Seniors, please help us out with this.

Thanks & Regards,

Alok Khowal