Can Principal Employers Demand Wage Sheets from Contractors? Seeking HR Insights

Hi all experts in HR and other fields, I want to know if the principal employer can force contractors to submit wage sheets of their employees deployed at their sites for contract work. However, we are providing EPF and ESIC challans. We are avoiding submitting wage sheets because in the past, they hired our engineers unethically. But now, they are insisting on us submitting wage sheets.

Request for Notification on Wage Sheet Submission

Please let me know if there is any notification from the Labour Department/ESIC/EPF that allows the principal employer to request the wage sheets. We are a service company that performs technical work, providing AMC for kitchen and laundry equipment. We send one to two technicians/engineers for eight hours a day, six days a week/three days a week/once a week.

Regards, Chander Prakash

If your establishment is registered under Contract Labour (R&A) Act as a contractor, then the Principal Employer is legally duty-bound to "Certify Payment of Wages (Column 14 of your Establishment Wages Register)" by attesting/certifying that the wages as shown in the register have been paid.

Reverify the aforementioned provision.

Kritarth Team, 22.3.19

Dear Chander Prakash,

A critical analysis of the CLRA Act, 1970 reveals that when a Principal Employer (PE) engages both licensed and unlicensed contractors (due to the number of contract laborers falling below the statutory minimum for a license) simultaneously in their establishment, the PE and all contractors are bound by the provisions of Section 21 of the Act regarding the payment of wages to contract laborers. To comply with the provisions of Sections 21(2) and (3) of the Act, the PE can generally insist on disbursement of wages through any mode like ECS, rather than a manual one. The reason cited for your refusal is not valid.

Regular Nature of Work

The above is with regard to the regular nature of work, where workmen are working in factory premises as per the regular schedule of the concerned factory and all generic rules applicable to them as they are the regular contractor for that organization.

Miscellaneous Work and Principal Employer Liability

Please guide us if the contract is awarded for some miscellaneous work to any independent contractor other than the manufacturing activities, like building maintenance or electrical wiring, which is not regular work, and the work is also completed by them within the stipulated time. Under this situation, is the principal employer liable for overtime and other statutory payments under the concerned act or not?

Regards,

R K Dixit

In prosecution for non-compliance of the MW Act, both the Principal Employer (PE) and the Contractor are held accountable by the Authority. It is a joint and several liability.

VSR