Minimum Wages Of Contractor In Job Contracts

Hello
Some contractors like Housekeeping have job contracts like cleaning 10000 sq ft of office premises. In such cases the number of manpower is not mentioned & it is upto the contractor to employ as many people as he wants.
In such cases, what minimum wages the contractor should pay them if his principal employer is eg: Engineering Industry, Drugs & Pharma, etc although contractor is registered under Shop Act. Whether he should pay as per the schedule applicable to principal employer or as per Shop Act?

Under normal circumstances wages as applicable to the scheduled industry is the amount payable to the workers engaged by the contractor. It is because, the workers of contractors are workers of the establishment for all purposes, like coverage of PF, ESI, Gratuity or Bonus Acts, applicability of retrenchment or lay off compensation, etc. At the same time, if the housekeeping activity has been recognised as a scheduled employment (like that in Kerala, there is a separate minimum wages fixed for cleaning and sweeping workers) then the wages applicable to that industry can be paid.
Madhu.T.K