Industries in a fix as contract labour seek April salary too

Lucknow: Industry and factory owners are facing a new challenge as they try to resume production in areas that permit it, that of contractual labour demanding salaries for entire months even though they may have worked only for a few days.

It has been a common practice for industrial units, especially small and medium-sized ones, to employ a percentage of their workforce as contractual workers.

Now with units barring essential services shut, but with a central government directive to pay salaries to employees, a lot of contractual workers are coming forward to claim wages for the entire duration of the lockdown.


“Before the lockdown, contractual workers had ample opportunities of employment but now with most units shut, they are unable to find work and are depending on their last employers to pay them salaries for entire months,” an official from the Confederation of Indian Industry’s UP chapter told ET on condition of anonymity.