Sunday, December 19, 2010

Employer's Liability under Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970

Introduction
The system of employing contract labour there in most industries in different occupations including skilled and semi skilled jobs. Even it may be in the agriculture and allied services. .A workman is deemed to be employed as Contract Labour when he is hired in connection with the work of an establishment by or through a contractor as per section 2(b) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition). One more thing is stipulated by the section that, that worker is hired with or without the knowledge of the employer, is immaterial.Contract workmen are indirect employees; they are persons, hired, supervised and remunerated by a contractor who, they are compensated by the establishment. Contract labourers may be employed for a specific work, which is for specific duration. But there are so many problems under the system of contract labour as like inferior labour status in comparison to the other regular workers, casual nature of employment, lack of security in work, and poor economic conditions. One perspective that is economic factors as like cost effectiveness may justify contract labour, but the extent of it must be determined another perspective, that is social justice.  
The Supreme Court of India in the case of Standard Vacuum Refinery Company Vs. their workmen[1] observed that-  If the work is of  perennial nature which must be done day by day, then the employer can easily hire the regular workers for it. Further the court went on to say that the situation would be different when the work is of intermittent or temporary nature or was so little that it would not be possible to employ full time workmen for this purpose.

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