Employers flouting labour laws through subterfuges

Employers are resorting to subterfuges to defeat labour laws these days, the Supreme Court has lamented. In this case, Bhilwara Dugdh Utpadak Sahakari vs Vinod Kumar, the employer showed that the employees were those of his contractor. Criticising this practice which is adopted in the name of globalization and liberalization, the court remarked: “Labour statutes were meant to protect the employees because it was realised that the employers and the employees are not on an equal bargaining position. Hence, protection of employees was required so that they may not be exploited. However, this new technique of subterfuge has been adopted by some employers in recent years in order to deny the rights of the workmen under various labour statutes by showing that the concerned workmen are not their employees but are those of a contractor, or that they are merely daily wage or short-term or casual employees when in fact they are doing the work of regular employees.”