The number of flexi or “formal contractual workers” in India, employed by staffing companies, is expected to reach 10 million by the end of 2030 from 5-5.5 million at present, as there is a huge demand for such workforce, said Lohit Bhatia, president, Indian Staffing Federation (ISF).
Flexi employees are workers who are hired for a particular period of time and get the benefits of social security, standard wages, legal compliances, registration under the EPFO etc. They are different from gig workers, who may not necessarily be getting such benefits.
The flexi employees are considered formal contractual employees, who are one party in a legally bound tripartite agreement between the principal employer, the staffing company and the worker. The principal employer gets into an agreement with a staffing company to hire flexi workers, who would be suitable to perform a particular role as per the requirement of the principal employer.
As per the agreement, the staffing company is the employer of the flexi worker, and is responsible for providing them the legal benefits. According to Bhatia, the ISF – an apex body representing the staffing industry – accounts for about 30-35% of the total flexi workforce currently in India, and is estimated to be around 1.6 million.
Bhatia says the workers employed by the member companies of the ISF will reach 3.5-4 million in the next six years. “We’re comfortably adding 200,000 net new labour in the formal flexi market every year. The scale of the adding is going to increase in the next few years.”
In 2019-20, the flexi workers employed by ISF companies were around 1 million, which in 2020-21 dropped 90,000 due to the Covid-19 outbreak. “We now have deployed 1.6 million, of which 20-24% are women,” said Bhatia, while adding that women flexi workers also get the benefit of maternity leaves.
According to a recent report by the ISF, staffing members of the organisation had added 136,000 new formal workforce in the last four quarters ending September 2023, and the employment demands during the period were primarily driven from sectors such as e-commerce, retail, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), logistics, manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, aviation, energy, and information technology (IT).
Bhatia, however, says that of the 1.6 million flexi employees, the BFSI sector employs the largest share of the ISF workforce, followed closely by retail, manufacturing, information technology and information technology enabled services (ITes).
The staffing Industry, at present, covers a meagre 1-2% penetration of the possible employable size in India. Of the 500 million workforce, about 15% are employed in the organised sector, according to the ISF.
“ISF is working towards growing this market”, said Bhatia. “To bring effect, the laws and regulations haven’t taken staffing industry into cognizance. Even though, the new labour codes recognize the staffing industry, but they have not yet been implemented,” he said.
Source: financialexpress
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