Dear Mr KK Sharma,
I think there is some confusion in our minds between the terms ‘Registration’ and License’.
There need not be any doubt that once you engage a contractor to provide contract labour for your establishment you become the Principal Employer (PE) and have to mandatorily register with the labour department. In the application you have to indicate the number of personnel you wish to engage.
The contractor, on the other hand need not register himself. However, if he provides 20 or more personnel at the site, he needs to apply for a ‘License’. It is done by submitting a Form V obtained from the PE. The application for the contractor’s license must be accompanied by a copy of the PE’s registration certificate in which the name of the contractors firm and the number of employees to be engaged are clearly indicated.
Hence a PE’s registration becomes mandatory, if he wishes to employ contractual labour through a contractor. The contractor need not register but he needs to obtain a license if he deploys 20 or more personnel. This is relevant to separate PEs. To clarify, If one contractor is serving more than one PE, he has to follow the procedure for each PE separately i.e. one license will not do for all PEs.
I hope that clears your doubt.
Good luck.
Colonel Gahlot
'TRURECRUIT'