The Centre has issued revised labour law instructions mandating timely wage payments to contract workers and warning contractors of blacklisting for repeated delays. (File Photo)
The Centre has come out with revised instructions to ensure timely payment of wages to contractual workers engaged in central ministries, departments, autonomous bodies and Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs). The instructions, which are in line with the four new Labour Codes effective November 2025 and their rules notified on Friday, specify procurement-linked compliance measures and introduce penalties including debarment and blacklisting of firms if contractors fail to pay workers on time.
Wage payments to workers are required to be made only through bank transfer or electronic mode. The May 8 order by the Procurement Policy Division of the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance directed all central ministries, departments, statutory, autonomous bodies and CPSEs to strictly ensure that contractors pay wages within the prescribed timelines: end of the shift for daily wages; before weekly holiday for weekly work; within two days of end of fortnight for fortnightly work; and within seven days of next month for monthly work.
In case the payments are delayed inordinately, the principal employers — the government departments and organisations — are required to pay directly to the contract workers as per terms and conditions, which will be clearly included in the contract agreement. In such cases where the contractors fails to make payment and the principal employer has to step in to make direct payments to workers, the order said that action will be taken to blacklist the contractor by the ministry and for repeat offence, the contractor will be blacklisted from all the ministries and departments of Government of India.
The manpower hiring requests for proposals and contracts will have penalty provisions in case the contractor fails to comply with the statutory requirement of timely payments to the contractual employees, the order said.
The Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) have been directed to verify compliance of these new instructions every month.
“All contractors engaged in the Ministries/ Departments/ Field offices/Autonomous/ Statutory bodies may be instructed to disburse wages/salary of their employees deployed in the respective offices on time and evidence of the same should be verified by the DDOs concerned every month. As per Section 55(3) of the OSH&WC code, 2020, the principal employer is responsible for ensuring that the contractor pays wages timely in accordance with the Code,” the order stated.
The contractors are required to disburse the wages through bank transfer or electronic mode as per the timelines and inform the principal employer electronically of the amount paid. “All principal employers shall ensure that sufficient funds are made available for timely payment to outsourced manpower before entering into such contracts,” it said.
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The new set of instructions assume significance given the recent labour unrest seen in several industrial hubs across the country. The ministries, departments and organisations have been engaging manpower either through outsourcing agencies and contractors or by directly hiring contractual manpower for different works. While the four Labour Codes became effective from November 2025, the final rules necessary for operationalisation of all sections of the four Labour Codes have also been notified on Friday.
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