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Despite debates on its hiring, contract labour is a growing form of employment in India. Establishments usually maintain a workforce composition of both regular workers and contract labour for optimizing their available resources and ensuring financial prudence. However, in the process, they often get embroiled in compliance issues related to regularization and 'equal pay for equal work' in the context of contract labour. In this article, we have explored the different judicial interpretations of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, on contract labour. For this, we have referred to the landmark judgements passed by the Supreme Court of India on the deployment and regularization of contract labour, and also their entitlement to equal pay for equal work. A scrutiny of these judgements directs us to advise establishments to avoid engaging contract labour in their core and perennial activities. Considering the statutory provisions and the possible legal complications, we have recommended some measures to establishments to mitigate the underlying risks in deploying contract labour alongside regular workforce in similar kinds of jobs or activities. We propose that the legislative framework grants flexibility to industries to generate employment to contract labour, without compromising on the rights of these workers.

Number of women in formal employment in India is significantly lower than that of men, and few women join and participate actively in trade unions in India. This paper attempts to study the factors influencing participation of women workers in unions in India. It is based on the assumption by Klandermans (1984) that the willingness to participate in an activity is the weighted sum of goal motives, social motives and reward motives. Goal and reward motives of participating in union may be related to union instrumentality, whereas social motives may be linked to approval for union participation from family, colleagues and employer. Willingness to participate is the weighted sum of these motives. Convenience in participating in union-related activities is another determinant of union participation. We propose that union instrumentality moderates the relationship of women's participation in trade unions with approval and convenience as independent variables. Women's participation in trade unions was measured with four indices of worker participation in union activities from the scale originally used by Chacko (1985) and a self-developed item. Convenience and approval were measured by five-item and four-item self-developed Likert-type scales respectively. The construct of union instrumentality has been evaluated by using a seven-item Likert-type scale with items derived from union instrumentality questionnaires available in literature.Data from a sample of 214 women workers of 8 manufacturing units across 5 public sector organisations was subject to hierarchical regression analysis. Findings lend support to the moderating effect of union instrumentality. Our study sheds light on the nature of relationship of convenience of women workers and approval of their family, peers and employer on their participation in trade unions, and shows a positive relationship between these constructs. The findings add to existing literature that examines the antecedents of workers' participation in trade unions, especially in context of women. Moreover, our research has illustrated union instrumentality as a moderator in the relationship of convenience and approval with participation in trade unions. We may hence deduce that women workers who have convenience as well as approval from their peers, employers and family members are more likely to participate positively in union-related activities.

PurposeIndian banking industry is one the biggest players in the country's service sector, with public sector banks (PSBs) occupying the major share. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model linking job characteristics (JC) and work engagement, moderated by perceived organizational and supervisor support as contextual variables.Design/methodology/approachData on 214 employees from 15 PSBs were used to examine this model. Analysis of data has established the moderating role of support at work in the relationship between JC and work engagement.FindingsFindings suggest that employees who have a positive perception of organizational and supervisor support are more likely to respond positively to JC and therefore would have a higher propensity to engage with their jobs. In addition to enriched jobs, the wider organizational climate characterized by support from supervisors and organization as a whole is critical to establish a positive environment, which would lead to greater work engagement.Originality/valueThe moderating role of support at workplace on JC and work engagement has been researched very rarely in literature. This study, hence, aims at investigating whether interaction between JC and perceived organizational and supervisor support influences work engagement of employees working in Indian PSBs.