Contract workers leave early for reasons the site controls more often than for reasons it does not. Wages that arrive late or short; provident fund and ESI deductions that never show up in the worker's own account; no letter saying what the job is; an induction that was a signature rather than a shift; and, for workers far from home, no way to get there. Each of these has a fix, and most of the fixes are already duties under the Codes.
Early attrition in blue-collar work is high enough that the first ninety days decide the economics of a deployment. Staffing-industry estimates put monthly attrition among blue-collar workers at 8 to 24 per cent depending on the sector, with annual turnover approaching 55 per cent, and name wage delays, unsafe conditions and the absence of any visible path forward as the main drivers [VERIFY: BetterPlace and TeamLease figures as reported via PR Newswire; methodology not examined]. A 2025 industry survey found 69 per cent of blue-collar hires were temporary, with an average tenure of about 21 months [VERIFY: Deloitte India, Blue Collar Workforce Trends 2025; methodology not examined]. Underneath both sits the structural fact that contract workers were 42 per cent of the organised manufacturing workforce in 2023-24 [VERIFY: ASI 2023-24, MoSPI, via Business Standard].
The cost of a leaver is not the vacancy. It is the pre-deployment file done twice: a second screening, a second UAN check, a second ESIC registration, a second induction, and a second month in which the site's headcount and the contractor's returns do not match. A site that loses one in five new contract workers inside a quarter is paying for six deployments to keep five people.
The first payday
The single most reliable predictor of an early exit is a first wage that arrives late, short, or in cash with no record. For a monthly wage period the Code on Wages 2019, s.17(1), requires payment before the seventh day of the following month; the OSH Code, s.55, requires the contractor to pay by bank transfer or electronic mode and to inform the principal employer electronically of what was paid [VERIFY: s.55 number from secondary sources]. A worker who joined on the first and has seen nothing by the tenth of the next month has already started asking around.
Two practices close this gap. Tell the worker the pay date at induction, in the appointment letter, and mean it. And walk every new worker through the first payslip, line by line, including the provident fund and ESI deductions, because a deduction the worker does not understand looks like a wage cut. The site should see the contractor's electronic wage intimation for the first wage period of every new bench before it sees anything else.
Contributions the worker can actually see
A provident fund deduction that never appears in the worker's passbook is, from the worker's side, money taken and not accounted for. Since 1 June 2021 EPFO has accepted a provident fund return only for workers whose Aadhaar is seeded and verified against their UAN, and from the wage month of November 2025 there are no exceptions [VERIFY: EPFO circular of 15 June 2021 and order of 1 December 2025, from secondary reports]. A worker deployed before the UAN is seeded has contributions deducted, none credited, and a passbook that shows nothing when they check it on their phone.
The ESI side has the same shape and a bigger upside. Registration is due within ten days of joining [VERIFY: ESI (General) Regulations 1950, regs 10B, 11, 12], and once it exists the worker and their family can use ESIC dispensaries and hospitals. For a worker whose family is at home in another district, that is one of the few benefits of formal employment they can point to. Hand over the UAN and the ESIC insurance number in writing on the first day, and show the worker how to check both.
A letter, an induction, and someone to ask
Three things on the first day decide whether a worker understands the job or is guessing at it. The appointment letter, which s.6(1)(f) of the OSH Code makes a duty of the employer for every employee, states the role, the wage, the shift and the terms; a worker with the letter knows what was promised, and a worker without one hears a different version from every colleague [VERIFY: clause letter from a secondary mirror]. The induction, which s.6(2)(c) requires as the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for health and safety, is what turns a new worker into a safe one; unsafe conditions are among the attrition drivers the industry data names, and a worker who feels unsafe in week one does not wait for week ten [VERIFY: clause reference]. The supervisor is the person the worker asks when the letter and the induction did not cover it.
Welfare facilities are part of the same picture. The Ministry's FAQ states that contract workers' welfare facilities are now provided by the principal employer (Q16): canteen, rest rooms, drinking water, first aid. A site where the contract workforce eats outside the gate because the canteen is for the rolls has told them exactly where they stand.
Migrant workers: the journey home
For a worker from another state the question is not whether the job is good but whether they can get home for Pongal or Diwali and come back to it. The OSH Code carries the inter-state migrant worker provisions forward from the 1979 Act: the employer pays a lump-sum journey allowance for a to-and-fro trip to the worker's native place once a year, and the worker can register by self-declaration on the portal [VERIFY: s.61 and the registration provision, from secondary summaries]. The Ministry's FAQ adds that the Code requires a toll-free helpline for inter-state migrant workers to reach the government when they face difficulty (Q8).
A contractor who pays the journey allowance at festival time, keeps the worker's ESIC and UAN live through the break, and tells them the return date, gets the same worker back. One who treats the festival exodus as attrition and re-hires in November pays the pre-deployment file again for a workforce that already knew the site.
The ninety-day checklist
| When | What the worker should have | Statutory hook | What the site checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Appointment letter; UAN and ESIC number in writing; induction sheet signed; PPE issued | OSH Code s.6(1)(f), s.6(2)(c), s.6(1)(g) [VERIFY: clauses] | Per-worker file exists before the first shift |
| Week 1 | A named supervisor; the pay date told and written down | Practice, not statute | Supervisor-to-worker ratio the site set, not the contractor's default |
| First payday (by the 7th) | Full wages by bank transfer; a payslip walked through | Code on Wages s.17(1); OSH Code s.55 [VERIFY] | The contractor's electronic wage intimation, matched to the gate register |
| Month 1 | PF contribution visible in the passbook; ESIC card usable | EPFO Aadhaar-UAN seeding; ESI (General) Regs 1950 [VERIFY] | ECR acknowledgement and ESIC challan carry the new names |
| Month 3 | A conversation about the next season; journey allowance date for migrant workers | OSH Code s.61 [VERIFY] | Attrition count against the bench, by reason |
| Exit, whenever | An experience certificate on request | Ministry OSH FAQ Q19 | Issued, so the worker can be re-hired next season |
Every row except one is already a duty under the Codes or a filing the contractor makes anyway. The retention effect comes from doing them on time and telling the worker they were done. The experience certificate is the exception worth adding: it costs nothing, the Code entitles the worker to ask for it, and a worker who leaves with one comes back with it.
What a principal employer must itself provide, as against what it may leave to the contractor and merely verify, varies with how the engagement is structured, and is a question for the reader's own counsel.
Sources
- Ministry of Labour and Employment, FAQs on the OSH Code, 2020 (January 2026) — Q8 (toll-free helpline for inter-state migrant workers), Q10 (the Code does not distinguish regular, contract and migrant workers), Q16 (welfare facilities provided by the principal employer), Q19 (experience certificate). Opened and read.
- The Code on Wages, 2019 (Act 29 of 2019), Gazette text, s.17(1). Opened and read.
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Act 37 of 2020), s.6(1)(f), s.6(1)(g), s.6(2)(c), s.55, s.60 and s.61 [VERIFY: clause letters and section numbers from secondary sources]
- EPFO circular No. WSU/15(1)2019/ATR/529 dated 15 June 2021 and EPFO order dated 1 December 2025 (Aadhaar-seeded UAN required for ECR) [VERIFY: from secondary reports]
- Employees' State Insurance (General) Regulations, 1950, regs 10B, 11 and 12 (registration within ten days) [VERIFY: regulation numbers from secondary summaries]
- BetterPlace and TeamLease Services, blue-collar attrition estimates, as reported by PR Newswire [VERIFY: underlying report and methodology not examined]
- Deloitte India, Blue Collar Workforce Trends 2025 — 69% temporary hires, 21-month average tenure [VERIFY: figures via summary; methodology not examined]
- Annual Survey of Industries 2023-24, MoSPI, as reported by Business Standard [VERIFY against the MoSPI release]