Are Delivery Boys Considered Outworkers Under the Contract Labour Act? Seeking Opinions on CLRA Implications

In an Ecommerce Company, delivery boys are engaged through a contractor. They report to the local warehouse every morning and spend an hour in the warehouse to take possession of the allocated items to be delivered to customers. The delivery boys sequence the items as per their route, fill the items in their delivery bag, and make entries in the system of the company. The delivery personnel step out of the warehouse for the delivery of products to the customer, deliver the items for 5 to 6 hours, and return to the warehouse with undelivered items and cash collected from the customers. They deposit the cash, get it tallied, surrender the undelivered products, and leave for the day.

Opinion Required: Can the delivery boys be treated as outworkers as per the definition of workmen under Section 2 (1) (i) C and be treated outside the purview of the Contract Labour Act?

Definitions: (1)

(i) “workman” means any person employed in or in connection with the work of any establishment to do any skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled manual, supervisory, technical, or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, but does not include any such person—

(A) who is employed...

(B) who, being employed in a supervisory...

(C) who is an out-worker, that is to say, a person to whom any articles or materials are given out by or on behalf of the principal employer to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished, repaired, adapted, or otherwise processed for sale for the purposes of the trade or business of the principal employer and the process is to be carried out either in the home of the out-worker or in some other premises, not being premises under the control and management of the principal employer.

Employment Status of Delivery Boys in E-commerce

The delivery boys are direct employees of the e-commerce company. The e-commerce company has agreements with several organizations whose products they are selling door-to-door. However, they cannot be employees of such manufacturers as they are not exclusive to a particular manufacturer. For example, an Amazon employee deals with products from a number of manufacturers, making it difficult to assign exclusivity. In such cases, they cannot be termed outworkers. However, if there is any exclusivity, then the situation would be different.

In the e-commerce setup of retail sales, the principal players are the e-commerce company and the manufacturer/seller of goods. In the absence of its own warehousing facility, the e-commerce company utilizes local warehouses as contractors. These warehouses either have their own delivery arrangements or the e-commerce company appoints separate contractors for delivery through their own delivery personnel. Therefore, the direct employment relationship of delivery personnel depends on who engages their services.

Additionally, I would like to bring your attention to re-reading clause (c) of the definition. The out-work mentioned therein refers to a manufacturing process conducted by the out-worker at a location other than the principal employer's premises, returning the received materials as finished products. How can the activity of a delivery person engaged through a contractor be linked to a manufacturing activity? Just because the delivery of goods ordered online to customers' doorsteps occurs outside the principal employer's premises, these workers should not be classified as out-workers as defined under the subclause.

Thank you.