Published on: 16 December 2022 at 23:07 IST
Court: Supreme Court of India
Citation: IAAI vs International Air Cargo Workers’ Union (2009)
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that the tests to find out whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor is to understand the arrangement of the contract labour agreement.
It is held that if the contract is for supply of labour, necessarily, the labour supplied by the contractor will work under the directions, supervision and control of the principal employer but that would not make the worker a direct employee of the principal employer, if the salary is paid by a contractor, if the right to regulate the employment is with the contractor, and the ultimate supervision and control lies with the contractor.
39. The principal employer only controls and directs the work to be done by a contract labour, when such labour is assigned/allotted/sent to him. But it is the contractor as employer, who chooses whether the worker is to be assigned/allotted to the principal employer or used otherwise. In short, worker being the employee of the contractor, the ultimate supervision and control lies with the contractor as he decides where the employee will work and how long he will work and subject to what conditions.
Only when the contractor assigns/sends the worker to work under the principal employer, the worker works under the supervision and control of the principal employer but that is secondary control. The primary control is with the contractor.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra