If any employee works for 3 years on a contract, will he/she will become a permanent employee after completing 3 years?

If any employee works for 3 years on a contract, will he/she will become a permanent employee after completing 3 years?

When an initial appointment of an employee is made on contract basis for a fixed period and the employee is retained as such further by virtue of the enabling provision for renewal, he/she would be a contract employee till the expiry of the final spell. Therefore, on the expiry of the contract, he has no locus standi to claim permanency in the establishment.

On completion of the contract period, if the employee continues that in itself does not render regularisation of service, for that the process of regularisation has to be gone through and there should be an order.

Dear colleague,

I share the views of the learned colleagues on this subject .

However, the claim for permanency has a merit only if the workman has worked continuously for 240 days and gets terminated and another person is appointed in his place to do the same job. In other words, the job remains constant but the person is changed with a view to dodge permanency.

This, however, does not apply to Fixed Term Employment category even though they may have worked for 240 days or more , as rightly pointed out by the learned colleagues.

Regards,
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR and Employee Relations Consultant

There are some employees work through contractor and some work on contract basis.

The employees working trough contractor shall claim for permanent employees provided the contract is sham & camouflage otherwise No.

The employee works in contract basis purely a time bound, the contract renewed after expiry of the each tenure. In this case the employee is binding by the contract so claim of permanency is remote expectation. The said employee/employees can request the managemnt to absorb in the post as the nature of job is of regular and permanent nature. The employee can refer the case as to his claim.
In the Supreme Court Of India Civil Appelete Jurisdiction Civil Appeal No . 1007 of 2021 University Of Delhi …Appelant (S) VERSUS
Delhi University Contract Employees Union & ORS. …RESPONDENT(S)
WITH CIVIL APPEAL NO. 1008 OF 2021 (Delhi University Contract Employees Union and anr. vs. University of Delhi and ors.)

keeping an employee on a contractual basis for three continuous years is not at all speaking good about the employer and their management..

Dear Colleague,

I beg to differ with Advocate Mr Sundar.

The contractual appointments are generally resorted to for project type of work like Construction or turn key jobs. Several times project duration gets extended due to unforeseen reasons. Therefore, the initial duration of the contractual appointment had to be extended. This may happen even 2/3 occasions during total span. Therefore, all contractual appointments cannot be viewed in straight- jacketed manner as being not good. It is certainly in bad taste if it is resorted to with dubious intentions to wriggle out of the law.

Regards,

Vinayak Nagarkar
HR and Employee Relations Consultant

Hi BMCRI ,

I agree will all the observation of the members. For further clarity please let us know the below details

1. Are you a principal employer or Contractor
2. Whether you have given contract agreement for three year or you have renewed every year.
3. Have to employed the said contract employee even after the contract period.
4. What is the nature of work of the contract employees.

Dear BMCRI

It is difficult to give a proper answer without having details of the contract, period and nature of work.

In general, if you have a contract to work for a fixed period, it will not give you a right to claim permanency. But at the same time, the nature of work and the provision of the Standing Orders may change the answer.

If the employment continues for long after the contract is over, then the employee can claim that he is made permanent (by action as he is being treated as a permanent employee) or that the original contract was a sham. That depends again on the contract, nature of work and other factors.

Again, if it is a one off or a regular feature among many such employees, will decide which way the courts will go.