Contract Labour Act, 1970:- Application

Dear Ranjeet ji,
Answers to your questions are as under:
CLRA is not applicable to those vendors as they have less than 20 workers each. However, CLRA is applicable to you since you have more than 20 contract workers.
CLRA is not applicable to you since you have less than 20 contract workers. Also CLRA is not applicable to your contractor since he has less than 20 workers. How many total employees engaged by contractor out side your establishment is not a criteria for making application of CLRA to your establishment.
It seems question is repeated and answer is as given in scenario II above.

Dear Shri.Korgaonkar Sir and Shri.Kalsi Sir,
Thank you very much for your expert opinion and correcting me as regards the registration of principal employers establishment if strength of contract workers is less than 20. I am sorry for my interpretation .and agree with your opinion.
Thanks once again
Adoni Suguresh

Dear Adoni ji,
I feel, we need not apologize for some thing shared by us with wrong interpretation. We all are in learning stage and we learn only by reading and sharing the posts provided by this platform. I thanks the provider of this platform for giving us such a nice opportunity for sharing what we have and correcting ourselves.

Dear Adoni Suguresh,
I am happy that my views has been vindicated, You are always welcomed. There is nothing to feel sorry rather I am happy that you accepted my views. This is one forum where we interact to learn through others' knowledge and experience. All laws are enacted in such a way that there is always a scope for difference of opinion in interpretation.This is evident form the court cases where two lawyers argue to prove their own point of views.
I am grateful to my senior colleague Sh Keshav Korgaonkar for honoring me with his expert opinion so promptly.
BS Kalsi

I think nobody has any dispute over Registration and Licence under the CLRA that registration is for the principal employer and the licence is for the contractor. Registration is required to be taken by the Principal employer only when he engages 20 or more labours through contractors. That means, if he has three contractors and each one is engaging say 7 workers each, then also he has to take registration because the total workers engaged through contractors exceed 20. Since none of the contractor has engaged 20 workers, he need not get a licence to engage workers in the Principal employer's site. Please remember that inorder to obtain licence the contractor has to produce a form, viz, form V, which is issued by the Principal employer declaring that the latter indents to engage 20 or such higher number of workers through the former. Naturally, if the number of workers engaged is less than 20, the question of issuing such form V will not arise.

As already stated, licence is purely (principal) employer specific and it is immaterial if the contractor has 100 workers under him and what is important is the number he engages in each company. Obviously, if he engages less than 20 workers with a company, no licence can be obtained in respect of that engagement. In case he engages the entire employees with different employers in such a way that under no employer he has engaged 20 or more workers, then there is no need to obtain any licence even though he has 100 workers under him.

Madhu.T.K

Dear Sir,
I need some information.
I am Newly joined in new Manufacturing Company, Present its is in Under construction. Here i would like know about the which are the Mandatory to follow as per factories Act and which types of Acts are applicable when company under constructions.
1. What Are The Formalities for Government Registrations ?
2. Is There Any Relaxation For ESI & PF Registrations at construction time for Employees and Contractors ?
3. In case factories Act is applicable do we have to maintain records like Form - 25, 15,26, and for Contractors Form - 12,16,17, and Rest Room, Health centres, Canteen etc.
4. Statutory Reports , Half yearly & Annual Returns we have to follow it are not.
Regards
Gangadhar

Here I endorse the views expressed by Shri. Korgaonkar with a little addition.
The CLRA applies the moment contract labour in all exceeds 20 in any establishment. Till then registration is not compulsory. .
1. If company has more than 20 workers and the contractor/s has/ve also 20 or more workers, both required to get registered under CLRA.
2. Company has less than 20 but contractor/s has/ve 20 or more workers, position 1 applies.
3. Company has more than 20 workers, but contractor has less than 20. CLRA Registration not required..
4. Company has less than 20 workers and of individual contractors each has less than 20 but total contract workers exceed 20, in such case. registration of principle employer required and also adding of each name of contractor in certificate of registration required..But each contractor is not required to register himself.

Respected Sh Kulkarni ji,
You have given four examples to
which I would like to add as under-
1.The company will obtained registration and contractor will apply
for licence.
2. It is a vague situation as the company can not have less than workers when contractor engages
20 or more workers.
3. Here you are wrong, if the Company has more than 20 workers, but contractor has less than 20. Registration is required.
4.The situation is vague but contention is correct.
BS Kalsi

Dear Friends,
I feel when our Senior Learned member and Super Moderator Madhu ji has given his opinion with examples, this thread should be closed with no further discussion unless somebody differs with him.
There should not be any ambiguity on this subject. Section 1(4) is very clear on this subject matter which is also given verbatim in this thread.

I would like to make a comment on Mr BS Kalsi's post wherein he stated as repetition of the same query. I feel it is not so. The query was for both the Principal Employer as well as the Contractor. Principal Employer's position is well clarified. But for the contractor position is not clear.

In a day if the contractor is deploying more than 20 employes, but all of them not at one site, is the contractor required to take license.

My personal experience has been very confusing- as the act does not clarify for one site but the labour office has differing views. Maybe different states have different rules. However as the act is very clear for more than 20 employees (need not be at one site as it is not mentioned so in the Act) for Principal Employer as well as contractors, it becomes confusing for the contractors. Should more than 20 employees be strictly at one site or is it the aggregate of all the employees deployed in a day by the contractor, maybe at one site or many.

Can any of our worthy members clarify on this?

Thanks & regards,