Contractor Did Not Pay Your Wages? The Principal Employer Must

If the labour contractor who hired you has not paid, or has paid you less than you earned, the company whose work you were doing is on the hook. That company is the principal employer. Section 55 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 makes it liable to pay “the wages in full or the unpaid balance due”, and then to recover that money from the contractor. Chasing the contractor is the law's job. Getting paid is yours.

If you are short on time, do Step 2 below tonight: a dated written demand to the principal employer. Everything else in this guide builds on that one piece of paper.

Section 55 of the Code is headed “Responsibility for payment of wages.” Sub-section 1 puts the first duty on the contractor: pay the contract workers before the end of the period fixed by the rules. Sub-section 3 is the part you need.

Where the contractor fails to pay within the prescribed period, or makes short payment, “the principal employer shall be liable to make payment of the wages in full or the unpaid balance due”, and then recovers the amount so paid from the contractor.

So you are not stuck arguing with a contractor who has stopped answering his phone. You put the demand to the establishment where you actually worked.

In everyday terms, the principal employer is the establishment whose work is being done: the factory, mall, office park, hospital, warehouse or government office that engaged the contractor. The Code carries its own definition of the term. If you are unsure who it is in your case, the work order and the contractor licence will name them.

Section 55, sub-section 2 stops the old cash-in-hand games. Every contractor must make the disbursement of wages “through bank transfer or electronic mode and inform the principal employer electronically the amount so paid”.

Two things follow, and both help you.

First, your wages should land in a bank account, so your own passbook or statement is evidence of what you did and did not receive. Second, the principal employer holds an electronic intimation of what the contractor says it paid. If that intimation shows a figure your bank account never saw, the gap is on record. Ask for it by name: the electronic intimation of wages paid under section 55, sub-section 2, for the month in dispute.

Section 54 is headed “Effect of employing contract labour from a non-licenced contractor.” Where a principal employer engages contract labour through a contractor who was required to obtain a licence under this Part but has not obtained one, “such employment shall be deemed to be in contravention of the provision of this Code.”

That is a finding against the principal employer, not against you. It is worth checking whether your contractor was licensed at all.

The Code deals with licensing in the sections just before this one. Section 47 is headed “Licensing of contractors”, section 48 covers the procedure for issue or renewal of a licence, and section 51 covers revocation, suspension and amendment of a licence. Section 49 carries a heading every contract worker should know: “No fees or commission or any cost to workers.”

Welfare is a separate duty, and it does not sit with the contractor. Section 53 says that “welfare facilities specified under section 23 and section 24 shall be provided by the principal employer of the establishment to the contract labour who are employed in such establishment.”

One: this Part has its own applicability rule. These sections sit in Chapter XI, Part I of the Code, which deals with contract labour. Section 45 of the Code is headed “Applicability of this Part.” Whether the Part covers a particular establishment therefore depends on that section and on the rules made under the Code. Do not assume every small shop with two helpers is covered. Ask your state labour department, or the labour authority for the central sphere if the establishment is a central-government one, to confirm coverage in writing.

Two: the deadline is set by rules, not by the Code. Section 55 says wages are due within the prescribed period. Prescribed means fixed by the rules framed under the Code, and those rules are still being rolled out. Do not accept a number from a WhatsApp forward. Ask the labour department which period applies to your establishment in your state, and get the answer in writing so you can quote it later.

The old Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act of 1970 is one of the laws that the OSH Code has subsumed. If anyone quotes the 1970 Act at you as the current law, they are working from an outdated file. The four Labour Codes, which rationalise 29 existing labour laws, took effect on 21 November 2025.

Consider a typical case. You work through a contractor at a warehouse, and your wages for the month arrive short by half. The contractor stops taking your calls. The site supervisor says it is a contractor matter and nothing to do with the company. That answer is wrong, and this is how you put it in writing.

1. Build the arithmetic first. Write down the days or shifts you worked, the agreed rate, what you should have received, what actually reached your account, and the shortfall. Attach your bank statement, your attendance or gate-entry record, your ID card or gate pass, and any WhatsApp messages from the supervisor. One page, in your own handwriting, is enough.
2. Send a dated written demand to the principal employer. Address it to the head of the establishment or the HR department at the site, not just to the contractor. State that the contractor has failed to pay or has short-paid, name the wage period, state the amount, and cite section 55, sub-section 3 of the OSH Code, 2020. Send a copy to the contractor. Keep proof of delivery: a courier receipt, a registered post receipt, or an email with a delivery confirmation.
3. Ask for the section 55, sub-section 2 intimation. In the same letter, ask the principal employer to share the electronic intimation of wages the contractor sent for that period, and the licence number of the contractor. You are asking for a record that the Code itself expects to exist.
4. Complain to the labour department if the money does not come. Take your demand letter, the proof of delivery and your bank statement to the labour authority with jurisdiction over the establishment. Ask them, in writing, to act under section 55, sub-section 4, which lets the appropriate Government order payment of wages out of the amount the contractor deposited as security under his licence. Also ask them to record whether the contractor holds a valid licence, given section 54.
5. Use RTI if the site is a public authority. See the next section. This is the fastest way to get documents that a private party would simply refuse to give you.
6. Collect your experience certificate before you walk away. Section 56 is headed “Experience certificate” and requires the contractor to issue one on demand. Ask for it in writing, even in the middle of a wage dispute. Your next job may turn on it.

RTI works against public authorities. Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005 defines a public authority as any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by or under the Constitution, by a law of Parliament or a State Legislature, or by a government notification or order, and it also covers bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed by government funds. You can read the full text on our page for the RTI Act, 2005.

If the principal employer is itself a public authority - a government department, a PSU plant, a municipal corporation, a government hospital, a government-funded university - file your application directly with its Public Information Officer. Ask for:

• The name, address and licence particulars of the contractor engaged for the work you were doing, and whether that licence was valid during your wage period.
• A copy of the work order or contract awarded for that work, including the manpower and wage component.
• The certificate or authorisation the principal employer issued in support of the contractor licence application for this work.
• The muster roll, attendance record and wage records held for the contract workers deployed on that work for the months in dispute.
• Copies of the electronic intimations of wages paid received from the contractor under section 55, sub-section 2 for those months.
• The file notings and correspondence on any bill passed to the contractor for those months, with dates and amounts released.
• Action taken on your written demand, with the name and designation of the officer handling it.

If the principal employer is a private company - a mall, a private factory, a private hospital - RTI does not reach it directly. Aim at the regulator instead. The labour department is a public authority, and section 50 of the Code is headed “Information regarding work order to be given to the appropriate Government.” So ask the labour department for the licence status of your contractor, the work-order information it holds for that establishment, any inspection or complaint records, and the action taken on complaints about unpaid wages at that site.

Expect one push-back: commercial confidence. Section 8, sub-section 1, clause (d) of the RTI Act exempts information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property whose disclosure would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that a larger public interest warrants disclosure. Handle it in advance. Say plainly that you are not asking for the commercial rates or the profit margin, only for the manpower and wage particulars and the licence record, and that the larger public interest in workers being paid outweighs a contractor claim to confidentiality. Also invoke severability: ask that the exempt parts be blanked and the rest supplied.

The Public Information Officer must respond within 30 days under section 7 of the RTI Act. If the reply does not come, or comes back evasive, you have 30 days to file a first appeal under section 19 to the officer senior in rank to the PIO.

Two tools on this site do the drafting for you: the AI RTI Drafter for the application itself, and the First Appeal Builder when the PIO goes quiet. If you have never filed before, start with how to file an RTI online in India.

• Open your bank app and screenshot the wage period in dispute. That is your core evidence.
• Write the one-page arithmetic: days worked, rate, amount due, amount received, shortfall.
• Draft the demand letter to the principal employer citing section 55, sub-section 3. Keep it to half a page.
• Photograph your ID card, gate pass, attendance slip and any supervisor messages, and back them up.
• If your workplace is a government or PSU site, start an RTI in the AI RTI Drafter asking for the contractor licence and the wage records.
• Save the contractor licence number if you can find it on a notice board at the gate.

Yes, that is exactly the situation section 55, sub-section 3 is built for. If the contractor fails to pay within the prescribed period or short-pays, the principal employer becomes liable to pay the wages in full or the unpaid balance, and it is then the principal employer who chases the contractor for recovery. Send your written demand to the establishment where you worked. Separately, ask the labour department to act under section 55, sub-section 4, which allows the appropriate Government to order payment out of the security deposit the contractor lodged under his licence.

That answer does not close the matter. Section 55, sub-section 3 makes the principal employer liable when you have not been paid, and gives it a right of recovery against the contractor. Payment to the contractor is the point at which recovery begins, not a defence to you. Ask, in writing, for the electronic intimation the contractor was required to send under section 55, sub-section 2 showing what was actually disbursed to workers, and put your bank statement next to it.

No. The Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act of 1970 is among the laws subsumed when the four Labour Codes came into force on 21 November 2025, rationalising 29 existing labour laws. Cite the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and specifically section 55 for wages, section 53 for welfare facilities and section 54 for the unlicensed-contractor problem. A notice that still quotes only the 1970 Act is out of date.

The Code says wages must be paid within the prescribed period, which means the period fixed by the rules made under the Code rather than a number written into the Code itself. Rules are being notified in stages and the position varies between the central sphere and individual states. Do not rely on a number you saw forwarded on WhatsApp. Ask your state labour department to confirm in writing which period applies to your establishment, then quote their answer back to the principal employer.

It helps you and it hurts the principal employer. Section 54 says that where a principal employer employs contract labour through a contractor required to hold a licence under this Part who has not obtained one, that employment is deemed to be in contravention of the Code. Raise it in your complaint to the labour department. The Code also has separate sections on licensing of contractors, on the procedure for issue or renewal, and on revocation, suspension and amendment of a licence.

Yes. Section 56 of the Code is headed “Experience certificate” and requires the contractor to issue one on demand. Ask in writing and keep a copy of the request. If the contractor refuses, raise it along with your wage complaint at the labour department, and if you worked at a government or PSU site, ask the principal employer through RTI for the deployment and attendance records that show your period of work. Those records serve much the same purpose.

Take it to the labour department along with whatever proof you have, such as a receipt, a bank transfer or a message. Section 49 of the OSH Code, 2020 is headed “No fees or commission or any cost to workers”, so the subject is squarely regulated by the Code. Raise it in the same complaint as your unpaid wages, because a contractor who charges workers for a job is often the same one who then delays their pay.

• The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, Act No. 37 of 2020, gazette text: indiacode.nic.in bare Act PDF. Sections 45 to 58 cover contract labour.
• Press Information Bureau on the four Labour Codes taking effect from 21 November 2025: pib.gov.in press release.
• Shram Suvidha, the unified portal for labour and employment: shramsuvidha.gov.in.

• What the new Labour Codes changed for your salary, gratuity and payslip
• Can a contractual employee demand regularisation
• Gig and platform workers under the Social Security Code
• The RTI Playbook, the step-by-step handbook for pushing an application through to a result.