Contractual Employees

Since the employment is of continuous nature , best course would be to ask for abolition and regularisation of contract labour . Make an application to the appropriate Government. In most of the cases the appropriate Government does not act . Wait for few days and then file a writ petition against the government and the employer.  

In case there is direct relationship of employer-employee i.e. the employer is making payment directly to them then an Industrial Dispute can also be raised for regularisation of their services under section 10 of ID Act. 

Thank you Mr. Thukral for your response.

I like to clarify that the organization is not a permanent one. It is a project under the ministry of Culture, GOI. It started in 2003 and was supposed to be ended in 2008. But it got an extention till March 2012. All the employees were recruited directly on contractual basis. The period of contract was renewed after every 89 days with one break day in between. However, the break is not applicable now but the extention to the employees is given after every three months. Now it has been decided by the authorities to openly advertise all the present contractual posts. In which case the employees presently workin in the organisation will also have to apply for the posts in which they are workin since many years and compete with the applicants from outside the organisation.

Dear  Shweta Singh.

G o to https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:dHlikqdo6K8J:labour.nic.in/annrep/files2k1/lab10.pdf+contractual+labour&hl=en&gl=in&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESinNcmamebIx8HmlNBcZD5WwKYYxcVtdwsxRkv6M8xqbfk3sDAu89rvDsYe4FJhaUBwIOmG-HeVG183pqGSZHdOAh69Uxh4UvikN91nKf-AMF2g1_doQZ8kECzVWTnLGqpDZ0RU&sig=AHIEtbQEu8nEN8eWlHB_t-VkT3DEl4c3pw

read THE CONTRACT LABOUR (Regulations and And Abolition ) ACT, 1970 And you know everything.

Since it is a project based employment , it does not give a right to the employees in law to be absorbed as permanent employees. It will be difficult to bring their termination within the scope of illegal retrenchment because of latest trend in judgments.   But in equity , they have a right.  Since there is no efficacious alternate remedy available in Industrial Law , you can approach the HC for an appropriate writ with an interim relief application. 

Mr. Thukral Can a stay be asked for against the advertisement ? Is it legal to advertise the positions of the present staff without terminating them ??

Right to livelihood emanating from Right to Life is being taken away. Definitely Court shall come to their rescue. If Fundamental Rights are violated then Writ is maintainable under Art. 226.  It would still be better if an application is before the Labour Commissioner/ Government  complaining of unfair labour practices and for r prohibition of same. It would be easier if LC is also a respondent with the employer.  

Mr. Thukral

Thank you for your kind response

Sir,

The procedure of sending application and getting a response will take a long time (which is the only thing we dont have at the moment). The advertisement is already published and the applications will soon start flowing in. Is there any way through which this process can be brought into a halt so that a solution for this problem may be sought after.

Some times the Maintainability of a writ jurisdiction against a private employer is questioned. Therefore it becomes necessary that some public authority is impleaded as a party. If the Principal Employer is an instrumentality of state then you can approach HC directly.