Dear Colleague,
Let's us have a look at Section 7 of the Act:
The Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954[(7) "employee" means a person wholly or principally employed, whether directly or otherwise, and whether for wages (payable on permanent, periodical, contract, piece-rate or commission basis) or other consideration, about the business of an establishment and includes an apprentice and any person employed in a factory but not governed by the Factories Act, 1948 (43 of 1948), and for the purpose of any matter regulated by this Act, also includes a person discharged or dismissed whose claims have not been settled in accordance with this Act;]
Hence:
The First Part of the definition : "employee" means a person wholly or principally employed, whether directly or otherwise- Both Direct as well engaged otherwise
The second part of definition talks about payment of wages "whether for wages (payable on permanent, periodical, contract, piece-rate or commission basis) or other consideration". Hence the payment of wages may be on permanent basis, periodical basis, contract basis, piece rated bases or for any other consideration etc. Hence this is talking about only the payment aspect.
Hence to give understanding on the query we need to depend on ....."employee" means a person wholly or principally employed, whether directly or otherwise" Here it is clear that
-those persons wholly or principally employed
-whether directly or otherwise -
WHETHER DIRECTLY OR OTHERWISE - Hence direct or otherwise is the clue that it includes any other pattern of engagement also. From this we may understand that for counting the number for compliance we need to include both direct as well as " otherwise" pattern employees for coverage of the establishment under Shops and Establishment Act. (We need to ensure that the contractor ensures compliance for all types of employees under various statutory aspects like PF, ESI and so on for their employees)