Working Conditions and Health Status of Contract Labours in Coimbatore

Contract Labour is a significant and growing form of employment. It is prevalent in almost areas like agriculture, industries and service sector. It generally refers to workers engaged through an intermediary and is based on a triangular relationship between the user enterprises, the contractor (including the sub-contractor) and the workers. These workers are millions in number and generally belong to the unorganized sector. They have very little bargaining power, or no social security and are often engaged in hazardous occupations endangering their health and safety. They are often denied minimum wages and have little or no security of employment. On the other hand, reasons like sporadic nature of work, difficulty in ensuring closer supervision by the employer or cost effectiveness, flexibility in manpower deployment and concentration in core competencies justify the system of contract labour. This labour has remained mainly unorganized and so they had been suffering exploitation by their employers.