Most Indian employees, even salaried ones, have no written job contracts

In a telling picture of growing job insecurity in the world’s fastest growing economy, a recent survey shows that 95.3 per cent of casual workers, 67.8 per cent of contract workers and 64.9 of regular wage/salaried persons in India do not have written job contracts.

Also, a majority of casual workers (59.3 per cent) earn only up to ₹5,000/month.

A sector-wise analysis done by the recently released ‘Report on Fifth Annual Employment Unemployment Survey (2015-16)’ shows that the percentage of workers with no written job contracts was higher in urban areas for both regular wage/salaried and contract workers.

“In the urban sector, 66.1 per cent of the regular wage/salaried workers had no written contract as compared to 63.7 per cent in the rural sector. Similarly, 70.3 per cent of contract workers in the urban sector had no written job contract as compared to 66.2 per cent in the rural sector,” says the survey.

Casual workers form about 33 per cent of the total workforce in 36 States and Union Territories, with Andhra Pradesh reporting the highest, 48.5 per cent, of workers engaged in casual labour, followed by Tamil Nadu (47.3 per cent), Kerala and West Bengal (43.8 per cent), Telangana (43.3 per cent) and Puducherry (40.3 per cent).

Chandigarh had the highest 54.2 per cent of the workers employed on regular wage/salary basis while Bihar had the lowest 9.7 per cent.

The survey, which was carried out in April-December 2015, showed the largest number of workers (46.6 per cent) as self-employed. Only 17 per cent of the total employed persons were wage/salary earners, while the rest 4 per cent were contract workers.

The picture becomes more dismal when it comes to females, who not only face a higher unemployment rate estimated at 8.7 per cent, against 4 per cent for males, but are also a dominant force in the army of casual labour.

“At the All India level, 42.1 per cent of the female workforce was employed as casual labour, followed by 39.9 per cent under self-employment, 14.8 per cent as wage/salaried earners and 3.1 per cent as contract workers (based on Usual Principal Status approach),” says the survey.

The survey also points at the link between growing casualisation of labour and poor wages and salaries. “Contract workers and casual workers were predominantly in the low earnings bracket of up to ₹7,500, it says, adding that 84.3 per cent casual workers and 66.4 per cent contract workers reported average monthly earnings of up to ₹7,500.

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