Dear friend,
Such a practice is quite ubiquitous and in vogue due to the heavy incidence of the unemployment problem in organized sector. Unscrupulous employers make use of this to keep some employees off-rolls for years together and the employees also remain tacitly patient under the hope of regularisation of their services one day or other. This is an unfair labor practice on the part of employers as defined u/s 2(ra) read with the list at sl no.10 of Part-I of Schedule-V and prohibited u/s 25-T of the Industrial Disputes Act,1947. But, being an accomplice to such a forbidden practice for years together for whatever reasons, how will you prove it later when you leave the job? An employer of an organized industry normally will have several unorganized supportive business ventures like shops supplying raw materials, transport facilities that are outside the purview of the social security legislations like EPF, ESI,PG Act,1972 either in their own names or in the name of his/her relatives. You might not know actually where you were employed. It is very difficult to prove and get back all the due benefits you lost by instituting any sort of litigation.