IN her article ‘Contract work woes’ (Jan 4), Zeenat Hisam considers the contracting out of jobs and hiring of workers on a contract basis as synonymous, while there is a great difference between the two. In contracting out or outsourcing, an employer engages a contractor to perform certain jobs for him, for instance, catering, housekeeping or gardening, which should be independently performed by the contractor with least supervision of the principal employer.

Hiring workers on a contract basis is different from the above. In this situation workers are directly employed and supervised by the employer and not by the contractor. They are employed on work of a temporary nature and for a stipulated period.

The writer has mentioned that the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968, also includes the contract workers in its classification of workers. I wish to clarify that its scope is limited to the workmen who work on a contract basis for a specific period on remuneration to be calculated on piece rate basis.

The writer says: “Traditionally, contract labour was defined only by triangular relation, that is, the principle that the employer hires contract labour through a third party called the contractor, or agency”.

Following the Supreme Court judgement, dated 16-5-2013 in the case of Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC), Mirpur Mathelo, the employers in general now try to avoid a situation whereby the workers are hired through a contractor and supervised by the employer.

In this case 112 workers of the bagging and loading area were declared as employees of the FFC and not of the contractor as the former was directly involved in their hiring and firing and supervision of work.

In order to have a legally safe arrangement of contracting out jobs, such functions should remain with the contractor.

Parvez Rahim
Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2015

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