In this blog post, Mohammed Azharuddin, a legal counsel at Borderless Access Panels Pvt. Ltd, who is currently pursuing a Diploma in Entrepreneurship Administration and Business Laws from NUJS, Kolkata, discusses the compliance requirements under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.
Introduction
The Contract Labour Contract (Regulation and Abolition Act), 1970 was brought into the picture to curb the menace of exploitation of contract labourers and also to provide better and healthy work conditions to the labourers involved in the process of carrying out the work for their employers.
A contract labourer, in general parlance, means a person who is engaged on a third party payroll, i.e., the “Contractor” who assigns the labourer on the workforce of the principle employer. The contract labourer in a way forms an indirect employee of the establishment where he is engaged. However, his payment structure would be different from the regular employees hired in the organization as his compensation depends on the pay structure assigned by the Contractor.
One of the main objectives of the statute is to abolish contract labour in certain circumstances and to regulate the employment of contract labourers by protecting their interests.
Applicability
The statute applies to every establishment having twenty or more workmen during the preceding twelve months from “one day” on which such contractors were employed. However, the act is not applicable to establishments which carry out work that is seasonal or discontinuous in nature.
Responsibilities of the principle employer
As per the provisions of the Act, the principal employer shall be responsible for paying the wages of the contract labourers if the Contractor fails to do so. The principle employer shall also be responsible for providing clean workplace environment to all the labourers along with providing proper health facilities.
Apart from the above, the Act mandates provision of the canteen, first aid, washing and drinking water, the required amount of urinals and latrines, the issue of employment cards to the workmen, etc.
Compliances
The below compliances are required to be followed under the Act:
- To get the establishment registered on hiring more than 20 employees as contractors.
- Maintain a register and records in XII.
- Display a notice at a visible place in English as well the local language highlighting information such as rate of wages, hours of work, wage period, etc.
- Half yearly returns to be.
- Annual returns to be filed.
- Register of employees to be maintained by the contractor.
The post Compliance Requirements Under Contract Labour (Regulation And Abolition Act), 1970 appeared first on iPleaders.