Here we have to draw the difference between contract employee/labour and contractual employee. The former, of course, is the one who is engaged through an intermediary/ contractor and is covered by CLRA any how. In the latter case, it is just like a regular employee but with the difference that he is employed for a certain period or for a certain work. It is called Fixed Term Contract. In your case, your contractor has employed a few Engineers and some persons for a fixed period, may be till the work in your plant is over. Still as long as he is engaged, the employer employee relationship exists and as such he should be given all statutory coverage like ESI, PF etc. Only thing is that if he is employed to do a specific work his employment will come to an end automatically once the work is completed. Similarly, if he is employed for a certain period, say one year, he should go out of the employment on the expiry of the period for which he is employed.
In the instant case, as far as the Principal employer is concerned, who ever engaged by the contractor in his plant is a contract labour irrespective of whether he is a regular employee or fixed term employee or temporary employee for the contractor. Therefore, all benefits as per statute, like minimum wages, ESI, PF etc should be given to those 7 employees engaged by the contractor also. Being the Principal employer it is your duty to ensure that they get the benefits failing which it will become your burden to pay it. It is not on the statements from the contractor about the status of the employees engaged by him that you should work, but you should only see if these 7 are working for you or not. If they are working for you, then in the next stage you can ask what is their remuneration and find if it is not less than minimum wages and if they are covered by ESI and PF. You need not accept the statements that they are temporary or FTC etc etc. That is the head ache of the contractor who has appointed them.
Consolidated pay does not make him free from his obligations. If they are paid consolidated pay, naturally, it will be on that whole amount that he should contribute ESI, PF etc
Madhu.T.K