What Are Our Legal Responsibilities for Benefits to Long-term Outsourced Staff?

Dear All,

I am currently working in a PSU. We have approximately 20 Outsourced Personnel engaged through an Outsourced Agency for more than 5 years. I would like to know what the responsibility of the PSU is towards the benefits offered to the Outsourced Staff and under which statutory Act they would be covered.

Regards,
Priya

Time and again, the Supreme Court of India has categorically stated that the State should try to be a model employer whenever employment disputes involving Public Sector Undertakings reach their final decision. Therefore, employing 20 people through an Outsourcing Agency for more than 5 years by a PSU would certainly raise certain doubts from an ethical point of view before answering your query.

Apart from the applicability of any regulatory measures of a statutory nature to this indirect employment, why has the continuous passage of time and the employment of the same group of people in the organization failed to make an impression on the minds of the top brass of the PSU that the particular jobs are of a perennial nature? The question of why the people engaged in these roles have not gained the required experience to be absorbed suo motu as regular employees is valid, I believe.

Regards

You need to read the Contract Labour Act. The act provides details of the principal employer duties very clearly. If you are a factory, all safety and beneficial rules apply to these employees as they fall within the definition of workers under the act. Additionally, you need to ensure they are paid salary on time, all statutory dues are deposited on time. Ensure that payment of wages, salary, bonus, overtime is correctly computed and paid.