Picture of exploitation:

Contract workers in the Central Ministries

i. Most of the contract workers get a monthly remuneration as low as 1/3 or even ¼ of a permanent worker’s (i.e. LDC/UDC/Stenographers) remuneration.

ii. The contractors take a cut from even such small amount and what the contract workers get ultimately is even less than the minimum wage level.

iii. Though on paper the contractors may be depositing a part of the workers’ salary as contribution towards PF and ESI, whether they are actually depositing the amount always or not is doubtful.

iv. The contract workers do not get any leave and medical facilities like regular workers and are given very little salary to afford these on their own.

v. Any contract worker raising voice against such rampant exploitation may be immediately sacked from the job; there is no job security.

vi. The contract workers are not provided with appointment letters etc. with which they can prove that they were actually performing tasks in the Central Sectt. of perennial nature.

vii. The contract workers in most cases are designated as Data Entry Operators to give an impression that they are not performing a perennial job.

viii. The so called data entry operators actually perform the jobs of permanent/ perennial nature as performed by LDCs/UDCs/Stenographers.

ix. In many cases the contract workers are forced do jobs for longer hours than the permanent workers.

x. Instead of one officer in any GoI Ministry being designated as the principal employer, the no. of contract workers is being split into groups of 19 or less, which means that in each Ministry there may be more than one principal employer though all these workers happen to serve the same Ministry.

xi. Non-designation of any body as principal employer helps the Ministries to shirk their statutory responsibilities of obtaining license from CLC(C) as ‘principal employer’ as required under the Contract Labour (Rehabilitation & Abolition) Act and allows the contractor to exploit the workers.

xii. This rampant exploitation is going on everywhere, even at the Union Ministry of Labour which administers the Contract Labour Act and is supposed to protect the interest of the workers. It has engaged a large no. of contract workers circumventing its own Contract Labour (Rehabilitation & Abolition) Act by fragmentation of the no. of workers among various wings, its HQ. and field offices.

xiii. Sometimes because of non-renewal of contract, the workers do not get anything at all, although they are told to work in anticipation of renewal of contract.

xiv. The Govt./ Ministers take advantage of the fact that most of the contract workers are young girls from needy families or students/ fresh graduates who are neither aware their rights nor see their contractual status as a permanent aspect of their life worth a struggle for its improvement.

Difficulties in organizing contract workers in the Central Ministries

1· There is no record that a contract worker is actually employed at any Govt. Ministry it is difficult to prove their existence

2· Any contract worker would not easily raise his/her voice against their poor pay, arduous nature of duties and long working hours for fear of being sacked

3· It is also possible for the contractor and even the ministry to shift any ‘trouble’ making contract worker from one establishment to another and not exactly sack him/ her to avoid more trouble.

4· Since most workers are young girls/students who come to do the job as a transient phase before marriage/ better employment, do not feel very strongly about the exploitation they have to suffer.

5· Non – designation of principal employer in Ministries makes it difficult to prove their existence and unionise and take the cases of these contract workers to CACLB under Contract Labour Act for prohibition of their kind of jobs.

Possibilities of militant TU movement:-

a· The contract workers are actual ‘have - nots’- real proletariat- unlike permanent employees they do not have a world to lose if sacked.

b· They know that if sacked from one office/ establishment, they can always try at another establishment.

c· Most significantly the contract workers are not bound by conduct rules which is applicable to the duly appointed temporary/ permanent workers/ employees in Govt.

d· It properly led, they may come under the banner of organized TU movement.

e· Unlike less educated causal/ daily rated workers, the contract workers may understand the tactics/ requirements of organized TU movement better.

f· Wherever the branches of the Non-Gazetted employees union are strong and militant in the Central Sectt., there will be possibilities of easier organization of the contract workers.
Because of abolition/ non- fill up of vacant regular posts, the Ministries are becoming increasingly dependent on the services of contract workers, putting them at a better bargaining position.

(Ack: Ms. Dimple Tyagi in typing out and editing formatting,; responsibility of errors mine)