Employment - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition employment

Definition :

Employment, the word 'employment' is not a word with a single fixed meaning but it has many connotations. On the one side it may bear the narrow meaning of relationship of employer and employee and on the other, it may mean in its widest connotation any engagement or any work in which one is engaged. If the former be the sense in which the word 'employment' is used in clause (d) of Article 319, the office of Governor would certainly not be an employment, because the Governor of a State is not an employee or servant of anyone, Hargovind Pant v. Dr. Raghukul Tilak, (1979) 3 SCC 458: (1979) 3 SCR 972.

The word 'employment' must be construed as emp-loyment in the regular course of business of the establishment. Such employment obviously would not include employment of a few persons for a short period on account of some passing necessity or some temporary emergency beyond the control of the company, P.F. Inspector v. T.S. Hariharan, AIR 1971 SC 1519 (1524): (1971) 2 SCC 68.

The concept of employment involves three in-gredients: (1) employer (2) employee and (3) the contract of employment. The employer is one who employs i.e., one who engages the services of other persons. The employee is one who works for another for hire. The employment is the contract of service between the employer and the employee where under the employee agrees to serve the employer subject to his control and supervision, Chintaman Rao v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1958 SC 388 (391): 1958 SCR 1340.

The word 'employment' being wider, and it takes within its fold, the aspect of promotions to posts above the stage of initial level or recruitment, Ajit Singh II v. State of Punjab, (1999) 7 SCC 209 (227). [Constitution of India, Art. 16(1)]

The act of employing, the state of being employed; work for which one has been hired and is being paid by an employer, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 545.