A principal employer engaged contract labour through a licensed contractor. For a particular month, the contractor paid the workers only half their wages and then stopped paying altogether. Under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020-

Section 55 casts the primary duty of wage payment on the contractor, but sub-section (3) is categorical: where the contractor fails to pay the wages within the prescribed period or makes short payment, the principal employer becomes liable to make payment of the wages in full or the unpaid balance due, and may recover the amount so paid from the contractor - by deduction from any amount payable to the contractor under the contract or as a debt payable by the contractor. Sub-section (4) adds that where the contractor does not pay, the appropriate Government may order payment of the wages out of the contractor's security deposit under the licence. The principal employer's liability is direct and carries a right of recovery; licensing does not shift the workers' remedy to the licensing authority.