Can contract worker be member of a trade union of regular employees?

Can a contract worker be a member of a trade union of regular employees of an organization?

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In most cases, contract workers are not eligible to join the trade union of regular employees within an organization. This is because trade unions typically represent permanent or regular employees who have a different employment status compared to contract workers. However, the eligibility criteria for union membership may vary depending on the specific rules and regulations of the trade union and the organization. It is essential for contract workers to understand their employment status and rights within the organization to determine if they can join the trade union.

Dear Rajkumar,

Basically, a trade union is a permanent and closed association of a certain class of individuals engaged in any trade or industry. Therefore, generally, contract labor, by virtue of its migrancy consequent on the Contractor's migrant business, cannot become members of the trade union which functions exclusively for the regular workmen of the Principal Employer's establishment. However, if the by-laws of such a union permit the admission of contract labor from the same establishment, of course, there would be no legal bar.

Dear Umakanthan Sir,

With due respect to you, I would like to differ with you slightly here, though you did mention the word "generally".

It is a fundamental right of every laborer to form a trade union or join any existing trade union. There should not be a bar on laborers to join the union of PE's laborers or to admit any contract laborer as a member by the union of PE's laborers, whether exclusively or otherwise.

I respect your view on contract laborers due to the nature of the migrant business of the contractor. They cannot become members of the trade union of PE's laborers exclusively. However, today we see no migrancy, and contracts are shameful and bogus.

Chander Bhan, etc versus Sunbeam Autoworkers Union in the Gurgaon District Court.
In a judgment that went largely unnoticed, the court ruled that any workman employed by a factory — irrespective of whether he was a permanent worker or not, fulfilled the Industrial Dispute (ID) Act’s definition of workman or not — was eligible to participate in union activities.
Section 2 (g) of the Trade Union Act , which defines “workmen”, for the purposes of a trade union, as “all persons employed in trade or industry whether or not in the employment of the employer with whom the trade dispute arises”.
In my opinion, there is no legal bar but permanent employees have different interests and long term interests which may not match with contract labour and they would not be entertained as members.

Dear Korgaonkarji and Mr. Rao,

I do not question the right of the contract labor to form their own union as a particular class of workmen or to join a General Workers' Union functioning in the area where the Principal Employer's establishment is situated. The system of contract labor in any establishment is despicable to its regular workmen as it starts gradually eating up a major chunk of direct employment. Therefore, in actual practice, no union of regular employees of any establishment would admit the contract labor employed therein for the reasons well said by Mr. Rao.

As Mr. Korgaonkar rightly observed, the practice of engaging contract labor after the advent of LPG era is constantly on the increase, and my educated guess is that it would be around 70% in the labor-intensive sector for the obvious reason of flexibility of hire and fire. To make the situation still worse, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central Rules, 1946, has been amended recently to permit Fixed Term Contract Employments which would also likely be misused as the conventional Contract Labor system of indirect employment.