Contract staff too qualify as workers: Court

'Workmen hired by contractors entitled to worker benefits under other labour laws'

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai

THE Madras High Court, in a significant order, has ruled that workmen, even when hired by contractors and falling under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act (CLRA), 1970, qualify as workers of a company under the Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (Conferment of Permanent Status to Workmen) Act, 1981.

Justice Krishnan Ramasamy gave the ruling recently on a batch of petitions filed in 2013 by TAFE's contract labourers — hired through contractors — and also by the contractors, over an order issued by the Labour Court in Tiruchy in 2012. "Of course, the petitioners, who had worked as contract labourers, are entitled to the benefits under the CLRA. Merely because a person works under the CLRA, it would not disentitle them from availing of benefits under other labour legislations, viz the Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments (Conferment of Permanent Status to Workmen) Act, 1981," the judge ruled.