Providing Social Security to Contractual Labour

The Contract Labour are engaged in the industrial sector  by the Government and Private establishments  as per their terms of contract and requirement and   no centralized data is maintained. However, the estimated number of contract labour  engaged by licenced contractors  in central sphere including the industrial sector in  the last three years is as under:

Year	No. of contract labour covered by such licences
2009-10	13.73lakhs
2010-11	14.89 lakhs
2011-12*	13.07 lakhs

* Provisional

                Engagement of  contract labourers is regulated under   the Contract  Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act,  As far as the security  in term of  wages and other service conditions is concerned,  as per the  Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Central Rules, 1971 , the wages of the contract labour shall not be less than the rates prescribed under  Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and in cases where  the contract worker perform  the same or similar kind of work as the workmen directly employed  by the principal employer of the establishment, the wage rates, holidays , hours of work and other conditions of service  shall be the same as applicable to the workmen directly employed by the principal employer doing the same or similar kind of work.    The liability to ensure payment of wages and other benefits is primarily that of the contractor and, in case of default, that of the principal employer. 

                 In the central sphere, the Complaints are received in the field offices of Chief Labour Commissioner(Central) Organization under the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970, Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and by   other laws applicable on contract labour which are investigated and action is taken. Social security aspects of contract workers under Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provision Act, 1952 and Employees State Insurance Act 1948 are enforced by the Employees Provident Fund organization and Employees State Insurance Corporation respectively provided the establishments in which outsourced workers are working are covered under the said Acts.  Central Government hasalso prohibited employment of contract labour in various establishments in central sphere through 84 Notifications issued from time to time under the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970. To safeguard the interests of the contract labour further in term of wages and social security, a proposal to amend the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 is under consideration of the Government.

                The Union Labour & Employment Minister Shri Mallikarjun Kharge gave this information in a written reply  in  Rajya Sabha today.

Source : PIB, August 22, 2012