Contract Employee

Yesterday i attended a company for a HR role.The company is one of the top IT service provider in India.The were ready to take me into their company not as a permanent employee but as a contract employee.They asked me to sign a contract for 6 months initially, after which they may extend the contract depending on their requirement.In that company they have a rule that contract employee will be made permanent only after a year and half.

After i made a research about the contract employment, i was able to get more details about it.Contract Of Employment is a legally enforceable agreement, either oral or written, between an employer and an employee that defines terms and conditions of employment.A contract employee gets his/her salary through cheques and they are not given a salary slip as other permanent employees in the organization.

Contract employee will be given only a fixed pay and is excluded from benefits like medical allowances,transport allowances,PF,HRA,Income Tax etc..,And also there is a risk of any time the employer breaking the contract.The contract employees don't come into the head count of the company and they don't have any appraisal procedure for them.Once the contract is over,the employer may extend the contract or send the employee out of the company

Many companies seemed to reduce cost by taking people as contract employee and on stipend basis.This kind of employment is seen often in many companies in today's scenario.One of my friend who joined as a contract employee in a leading MNC for HR role,was paid only 7000Rs instead of original salary 20,000Rs and no Benefits. This is how most companies reduce cost through contract employment.

Government should set proper rules and regulations for contract employment in India, to avoid organizations which use it as a tool to get more work from an employee and pay less to them.