Among the significant changes introduced under the new Labour Codes apart from the uniform definition of “wages” two developments under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH Code) deserve particular attention: the revised definition of “contract labour” and the regulation of their engagement in the core activities of an establishment. The issue relating to deployment of contract labour in core activities has already been discussed by this author in an earlier article published in Business Manager. The present article, therefore, confines itself to the equally important but comparatively less discussed change in the definition of ‘contract labour’.
Under the erstwhile Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, (CLRA) the definition was wide enough to ordinarily cover workmen hired by or through a contractor in connection with the work of an establishment. The OSH Code, while substantially retaining this principle, introduces a specific exclusion for certain workers who are regularly employed by...
