Dear Guidance-Seeker:
Your Query:--"I am running my contract in factory (for) at least 4 (continuous) year now Company (Principal Employer..) asked me about Breaks for worker (Contract Labours) avoiding future dispute . Please let me know what can I do...".
Kritarth Team's Clarifications Offered:--
1. " No Break/s, and or Discontinuity of Contracl Labour employement shall serve your Purpose of Avoiding Claim for Permanent Employment in the "Jobs" against which the said CL were engaged by the Contractor, for and on behalf of the Principal Employer in latter's Establishment.
The Key Determinent shall be "whether" the CL were Engaged / Employed on "Permanent and Perennial Jobs (nature of Jobs).
2. Likewise. no aggregaation of intermittent, as and when they occured/ needed periods of Employment of CL in against Non-Permanent and Non-Perennial Jobs shall confer upon the CL any Entitlement to Permanency in against the same Jobs.
This Legal Position has often been Repeated/re-iterayed by theSupreme Court of India in their Judgements/Oreders dating as far back as 1957 (Dhrangadhra Chemical Works Ltd. v. State of Saurashtra) to Air India case as Kritarth Team readily recalls at this point of time.
The Twin Litmus Tests enunciated are.. "i) Whether the Principal Employer pays/Disburses the Wages /Salary instead of the Contractor; and;
(ii) Whether the Principal Employer "controls and supervises" the work Performance of the CL.
Withour scruple when Few Principal Employers engaged Workforce thru Contractors to work in against Permanent & Perennial Nature of Work/Jobs, in somewhat clandestine manner , camouflaging the same as Seasonal or Intermitent, our Honble Supreme Court termed such blatent Acts as Sham , Subterfuge.
The Point to Ponder is remains : How Much Do we Save ??? By such or similar Unlawful Actions. The Stand is Our Own Team's Stand which we Maintain While We Advice our Esteemed Service-User Corporates Employers.
We Understand that "Anything Worth Doing Is, Worth Doing WELL".
Kritarth Team
17 Feb 2019,
PAN India Service Provider