With the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (“OSH Code”) coming into force and subsuming the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (“CLRA”), the legal regime on contract labour has been structurally recast.
With this recast, an important question also arises: what happens to the Constitution Bench judgment in Steel Authority of India Ltd v National Union Waterfront Workers (“SAIL”)? For over two decades, SAIL has been the anchor on the abolition of contract labour and “sham contracts”. Has it now lost relevance, or will itstill govern the field under the new Code?
This article briefly traces (i) the earlier position under the CLRA, (ii) what has materially changed under the OSH Code, and (iii) what survives of SAIL in this new framework.
The Old Position: CLRA and Section 10
The CLRA objectives were:
- to regulate contract labour through registration, licensing, and basic welfare provisions; and
- to abolish contract labour in...
