Dear Venkatesh,
I do hope that either as an employer or as a HR manager, if you dispassionately analyze the concept of Fixed Term Contract Employment in any industry, you will certainly agree that it is only a stop-gap arrangement to effectively carry out some special or technical type of works lasting for a certain period for it facilitates hire and fire of such adhoc employees when the special work or the contract, as the case be, expires. Therefore, comparing to the number of regular workmen employed in the core activity of the establishment, the no. of FTC employees should be certainly far less only. Viewed from this perspective, your unqualified statement of admission that the no. of regular workmen in the establishment is far less than that of the fixed term contract employees is a glaring indication of unfair labor practice even though it is permitted under rule (3A) of the amended Industrial Employment ( Standing Orders ) Central Rules,1946 w.e.f 16-03-2018.
As it is, the FTC employees have no locus standi to demand for their absorption as regular employees on the expiry of their contracts; but the trade union can. You cannot justify rotating people endlessly on permanent jobs on FTC basis. Since it is evident that there is a miss-match in the ratio of FTC workmen and the regular workmen employed in the same or similar activities of the establishment, if the management outrightly refuses to accept the demand, the union can be successful when the dispute gets escalated to the stage of industrial adjudication.