Is It Legal to Exclude Staff from Labour Licence Requirements? Seeking Guidance!

Labour Licence Applicability for Staff

I need your guidance on whether a Labour Licence is applicable to staff or not. The staff includes engineers, supervisors, managers, GETs, HR, and admin staff, etc., whose salary is more than ₹10,000 per month. For example, my company is a contractor, and we have employed 380 workers and 100 staff. We have obtained a Labour Licence to cover 400 workmen. Here, we only consider our 380 workers for the labour licence purpose and exclude staff from the labour licence. Is this legal, or do we need to include staff as well?

Kindly advise!

Regards,
Ram Ahir

As per the Contract Labour Act, "Workman" does not include employees who are employed in a managerial or administrative position or who are employed as a supervisor drawing a salary exceeding Rs 5000 per month. I hope you have understood the above clause well.

Regards

The CLRA applies:
(a) To every establishment in which twenty or more workmen are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months as contract labour.
(b) To every contractor who employs or who employed on any day of the preceding twelve months twenty or more workmen.

Workman under the Act means any person employed, in or in connection with the work of any establishment, to do any skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled manual, supervisory, technical, or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied. However, it does not include any such person:

(A) Who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity; or

(B) Who, being employed in a supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding five hundred rupees per mensem or exercises, either by the nature of the duties attached to the office or by reason of the powers vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial nature; or

(C) Who is an out-worker, that is to say, a person to whom any articles and materials are given out by or on behalf of the principal employer to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished, repaired, adapted, or otherwise processed for sale for the purposes of the trade or business of the principal employer, and the process is to be carried out either in the home of the out-worker or in some other premises, not being premises under the control and management of the principal employer.

You are advised to make a decision in light of the above.

The Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act is meant for manual workers, such as white-collar and blue-collar jobs. Only blue-collar job holders need the CL license issued by the appropriate government authority. The act can also include office staff, engineers, and contractor representatives in the muster rolls.

The replies given by Shri Korgaonkar are very clear.

Exclusions from Total Workmen Employed

From the total workmen employed, please exclude:

- Persons employed in managerial or administrative capacity.
- Persons employed in supervisory capacity and drawing Rs 500 per month, functioning mainly in a managerial capacity.
- Outworkers who are sourcing raw materials from or on behalf of the principal employer and working in a place not under the control and management of the principal employer.

The remaining workmen are covered under the CL(R&A) Act 1970.

As per your license, you applied for 400 employees but are currently employing 480 employees. Therefore, you need to renew your license and increase the number of employees to accommodate either 500 or 650 for future use.

Thank you.

In labor laws, there are no terms like "white collar," "blue collar," or "staff." The concepts are worker, employees, employed persons, supervisory/managerial/administrative, workmen, etc.

Regards,
VARGHESE MATHEW
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