Guides
What Indian employers actually have to do.
Reference guides on the statutory obligations that catch employers out — written for the person who has to implement them, not for a law journal. Each one covers what applies, when it applies, what it costs to get wrong, and where the common failures are.
General information, not legal advice. Thresholds, rates and state rules change — confirm your current position before acting.
- 01 Provident Fund (PF) compliance for employers in India
What the EPF Act requires: coverage thresholds, contribution rates, the wage definition that decides your liability, and where employers go wrong.
→ - 02 ESI registration and compliance for Indian employers
When ESI applies, the wage ceiling that decides coverage, contribution rates and periods, and the errors that create retrospective liability.
→ - 03 Domestic enquiry procedure: how employers lose winnable cases
Charge sheet to findings, step by step, and the procedural defects that defeat employers who were right on the facts.
→ - 04 Gratuity: rules, calculation and the liability employers forget
When gratuity applies, the five-year rule and its exceptions, how to calculate it, and why unfunded gratuity is a common diligence finding.
→ - 05 Employment contracts in India: what to include and what does not work
What an Indian employment contract needs, why non-compete clauses largely do not work here, and how notice and termination differ from the West.
→ - 06 Contract labour compliance and principal employer liability
When the Act applies, what registration and licensing require, and why principal employer liability is the largest unquantified exposure.
→ - 07 Standing orders: the document that decides your disciplinary cases
When certified standing orders are required, what they must cover, and how an outdated list of misconduct undermines disciplinary action.
→ - 08 Notice periods and termination of employment in India
What governs notice, why at-will employment does not exist here, retrenchment procedure, and terminations set aside on procedure not merit.
→ - 09 Full and final settlement: what employers owe, and when
Every component of an Indian FnF settlement, what may lawfully be recovered, and why withholding a relieving letter is a poor idea.
→ - 10 Minimum wages: the compliance failure that happens by standing still
How minimum wages are notified by state and skill category, why VDA revisions catch employers out twice a year, and contract labour exposure.
→ - 11 Statutory bonus: who is eligible and how it is calculated
When the Act applies, the two wage ceilings that decide eligibility and calculation, minimum and maximum rates, and the payment deadline.
→ - 12 Maternity benefit: entitlements, creche obligations and the return to work
Entitlements, eligibility, the creche obligation at fifty employees, protection against dismissal, and the return-to-work failures that cost you.
→ - 13 Shops and Establishment Act: registration and the multi-state trap
Why there is no single Act, what registration requires, how rules differ by state on hours and leave, and the multi-state compliance trap.
→ - 14 The employee handbook: what to include, and what to leave out
What belongs in an Indian employee handbook, what to leave out, and how to keep it from contradicting your contracts and standing orders.
→ - 15 The HR policies every Indian company actually needs
Which HR policies you need and when: what is required at ten, fifty and one hundred employees, and what most companies write far too early.
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Topics covered
- Provident Fund
- ESI
- Discipline & Employee Relations
- Gratuity
- Contracts & Documentation
- Contract Labour
- Termination
- Exit & Settlement
- Wages
- Bonus
- Maternity & Leave
- Registration & Records
- Policies & Documentation
More guides are added regularly. If there is an obligation you are unsure about and it is not covered here, ask — it is probably worth writing up.
Why these guides exist
Most writing on Indian employment compliance falls into one of two categories. Either it is a bare restatement of the statute, which tells you what the law says and nothing about what to do. Or it is marketing content thin enough to be useless, written to rank rather than to help.
These are written from the other direction — from having had to implement the obligations, defend the shortcuts, and clean up after the versions that were done badly. Each guide covers what applies, when it applies, how it is calculated or conducted, where the exposure actually sits, and the specific errors I see most often.
They are not a substitute for advice on your own position, and they say so. Statutory thresholds, contribution rates and wage ceilings change, state rules differ, and what applies to you depends on your size, sector and locations. Use them to understand the shape of the obligation and to work out which questions to ask.