One Company, Several States: How to Maintain Statutory Holiday Notices and Calendars

A company with offices in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad and Vijayawada can give employees one convenient place to see holidays. The underlying legal records still belong to particular establishments and employee groups. A colourful national calendar does not complete a consultation, obtain an Inspector's decision, or prove that a required notice was displayed locally.

The practical solution is a central calendar supported by separate local compliance files. Employees see their applicable dates clearly, while the company can explain how each location's list was selected, approved where necessary, communicated and implemented in payroll. This guide concerns that coordination process, rather than supplying a universal holiday list for every private employer.

Start with establishments and covered employees

Create an establishment register before choosing festival dates. Record each location's legal name, address, activity, registration, workforce, responsible manager and competent labour authority. Identify whether the premises are an office, shop, factory, plantation or another notified establishment. “Industrial establishment” can include commercial offices under these holiday laws; the expression is not confined to manufacturing.

Employee coverage also needs attention. Statutory definitions and exclusions can distinguish management positions, travelling work, government-controlled establishments and particular sectors. A job title alone is inadequate. Retain the factual reason for including or excluding a category, and record any conditional exemption separately.

Kerala particularly illustrates the importance of thresholds. Its industrial holiday law's general establishment definition uses twenty employees, including the preceding twelve-month test, with separate plantation and notification provisions. A small Kerala office should not be treated as covered merely because a larger Bengaluru office is covered by Karnataka legislation. Equally, today's reduced headcount does not settle a preceding-period test.

The commencement of the central labour codes on 21 November 2025 requires care when using older factory references and procedural compilations. Assess the applicable definitions, transition arrangements and operative state instruments. Do not infer that a central change automatically erased these separate state holiday laws or made all office and factory procedures identical.

Keep four kinds of holidays distinguishable

A bank closure can affect salary processing without independently requiring every nearby private office to close. A government-office festival list can help planning without being the company's statutory industrial holiday statement. Conversely, a special order can expressly cover private establishments; its actual scope matters.

Kerala's 2026 holiday notification expressly preserves the separate holiday framework for institutions governed by labour laws. That distinction is useful when someone proposes simply uploading the government calendar to the employee portal. Record the relevant employment instrument and local list instead.

Optional company holidays should be labelled clearly. They may supplement statutory holidays, but an employee's restricted-holiday choice should not silently replace a fixed statutory date. Review more favourable contractual, settlement or established benefits before reducing a previous calendar to a legal minimum.

Build a five-state procedure matrix

The matrix should describe the applicable establishment, not merely name the state. The following differences are useful starting points for ordinary covered private establishments, subject to employee exclusions and specific exemptions.

The four fixed dates in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are 26 January, 1 May, 15 August and 2 October. Karnataka adds 1 November to those dates for the ordinary private-establishment structure.

These figures do not decide every employee's pay eligibility, every special holiday or every exemption. They also do not entitle headquarters to choose all festival dates without the required local process. Keep the actual annual festival instrument or establishment decision behind each calendar entry.

Karnataka: consultation and display rather than obsolete forms

For the ordinary private establishment, Karnataka's structure produces ten holidays: five fixed dates and five selected festivals. The statutory proviso treats Government of India-owned or controlled establishments differently, so ten should not be advertised as an exception-free statewide rule.

Under the amended rules, circulate the tentative festival list to the trade union or employees or their authorised representatives, allowing fifteen days for objections. Record agreement or the absence of objections. A dispute goes through the Inspector's statutory decision process rather than being settled by an HR majority spreadsheet alone.

For a newly commenced establishment, the rules provide a thirty-day window for consultation and display; subsequent annual notices are displayed before 31 December. The notice is in Kannada and English at a conspicuous workplace location. Preserve the proposal, responses, decision if required and displayed version.

The 1998 amendments omitted several earlier rules and Forms I–VI. A downloaded old form pack can therefore create unnecessary or inaccurate filing tasks. Map the amended procedure before instructing every branch to submit the same legacy annual form.

Tamil Nadu: distinguish selection from the annual statement

For a new Tamil Nadu establishment, the rules require the duplicate Form I festival proposal within thirty days of commencement, accompanied by the Form II employee notice and a fifteen-day objection opportunity. The Inspector's specified festivals are communicated in Form III, which the employer displays within seven days of receipt.

The annual statement is a different step: Form V must reach the Inspector by registered post before the calendar year begins, with simultaneous workplace display. A previous festival approval should not be mistaken for evidence that the next year's statement was sent.

Proposed changes use Form IV and the prescribed process; the resulting festival change takes effect from the following 1 January. Headquarters cannot assume that changing a row in the employee calendar immediately changes the approved statutory festivals.

Maintain a local record linking the approved selection to the annual statement. Additional emergency or special holidays can arise separately, so an approved annual list does not end monitoring for the year.

Kerala: begin before the November approval deadline

Kerala's rules require the Form I festival proposal for annual approval before the end of November. New establishments have a separate thirty-day submission provision. The correct approving authority can depend on the establishment and the geographical spread of branches; sending everything to the officer nearest headquarters is not a reliable rule.

The consultation route differs depending on whether there is a registered trade union. Preserve the appropriate proposal and objection notices rather than replacing them with a general employee satisfaction survey.

Display the approved Form IV statement before 31 December in a language understood by the majority of workers. The previous year's Form V return is due before 31 January. Approval, display and annual reporting therefore belong to different tasks with different evidence.

New establishments also need attention to the statutory first-year festival arrangement. Do not assume that opening late in the year means either no festival entitlement or an automatic requirement to retrospectively grant all dates that passed before commencement.

Telangana: apply the conditional simplification order

Telangana's older rules describe Form I submission before the year begins and simultaneous display. They must be read with G.O.Rt.No.106 dated 15 February 2021, which grants specified procedural exemptions until further orders, subject to conditions.

For the holiday provisions, the order addresses annual Form I submission, Form III maintenance, statement display, the visit book and duplicate Form II signatures. Conditions include providing lawful holidays, following government-declared holidays where specified, and communicating holidays to employees for the display exemption. This is not permission to withhold paid holidays or ignore holiday-work rights.

A company relying on the relaxation should keep the order, its applicability assessment, the lawful local list and evidence that employees were informed. Check for subsequent orders when refreshing the annual file. Do not demand obsolete paperwork automatically, or describe every digital calendar as sufficient without showing that the exemption's conditions are met.

The Ranga Reddy Zone proceedings dated 17 December 2025 illustrate the establishment distinction. Their 2026 shops-and-establishments list contains nine dates, including Telangana Formation Day; the separate factory list contains eight. They even list different Dussehra-related dates. These are dated, geographically specified instruments, not a universal Telangana list. Retain subsequent corrections too. A Hyderabad office and factory cannot safely use the same list just because they share payroll.

Use the applicable notified festival list and any lawful substitution records. An older rules compilation's references to five festivals and optional May Day must not displace the amended Act's four fixed dates and four festivals.

Andhra Pradesh: separate manufacturing and other establishments

For covered establishments to which the ordinary rules apply, Andhra Pradesh's Form I annual statement is sent by registered post to reach the Inspector before the year begins, with simultaneous readable display. Preserve both the delivery record and the displayed statement.

Rule 6-A excludes factories and establishments engaged in the defined manufacturing process from Rules 4, 5 and 6. Those rules include the statement procedure, specified notice arrangements and records. It would therefore be inaccurate to impose the same Form I checklist universally on a factory and an ordinary commercial office.

The exception does not itself abolish holiday entitlements under the Act. Record the establishment's classification and applicable procedure, rather than deleting the whole holiday compliance row. A corporate office supporting a factory should not borrow the manufacturing exception without examining its own status.

As in Telangana, old rules language about festival numbers should be reconciled with the amended Act. Current annual local notifications and special orders also need to be retained for the location concerned.

Publish one calendar with clear local views

Give every calendar entry an establishment or employee-group tag, holiday category, effective date, approval status and version. A company-wide view can show all locations, but each employee should be able to identify the dates applicable to their assignment.

A useful release file contains the approved local statutory statement, additional company holidays, planned operating arrangements and the employee communication. Mark a draft festival proposal as provisional; do not present it as approved because travel bookings are already being discussed.

Where physical display is prescribed and no applicable relaxation permits another route, maintain that display alongside the intranet. A photograph can support evidence of display, but does not ensure the notice remains readable throughout the year. Give the branch manager responsibility for replacement when a notice is damaged or removed.

The coordination checklist can sit alongside financial and practice work managed through assureOffice. The local statutory submission, approval and display evidence still needs its own verified completion record; a task marked complete is not a substitute for the underlying document.

Control changes, transfers and holiday work

For a late holiday order, first establish its authority, covered area, employee scope and effective date. Determine whether it adds a special holiday, corrects a festival date or changes only government-office arrangements. Then revise the affected local records, staffing plan, employee notice and payroll instructions together.

Keep the superseded calendar and a short change note. Explain exactly which date changed and which locations are affected. An undated replacement PDF makes it difficult to resolve an employee's claim that the company originally instructed them to attend.

For transfers, record the effective work location and applicable establishment calendar. Review already received benefits, contractual protections and any holiday work instead of simply adding or subtracting the difference between two annual totals. Temporary travel or a remote assignment needs a factual assessment; payroll cost centre alone does not conclusively determine coverage.

Working on a statutory holiday is a separate event. The relevant states can require advance individual notice, an Inspector copy or display, and particular wage or substitute-holiday treatment. Check applicable exemptions and employee options. A generic calendar footnote saying “operations may continue” does not complete those requirements.

A practical annual release checklist

Start the process early enough for the longest consultation and approval route. This is a recommended planning control, not a new uniform statutory deadline.

1. Confirm each establishment's classification, covered employee groups and conditional exemptions.
2. Obtain the applicable annual festival instruments and identify special orders already issued.
3. Complete consultation, objections, selection and approval where required.
4. Prepare the correct local statement, filing and display tasks, with separate owners.
5. Reconcile additional company benefits and holiday-work arrangements with payroll.
6. Publish the central calendar and each local notice, recording dates and versions.
7. Retain acknowledgements, delivery evidence, display records and subsequent changes.

When a client team uses assureoffice.in for related practice coordination, the same principle helps: connect the task to the responsible establishment and evidence. The employee experience can remain simple while the legal file preserves the differences that matter.

Frequently asked questions

1. Can one national HR calendar replace every local statutory notice?

No. It can provide a common employee interface, but consultation, approval, filing and display depend on the local law and applicable exemptions. Maintain a separate completion record for each establishment's required procedure.

2. Are bank holidays automatically mandatory for every private employer?

No. Identify the order's legal purpose and coverage. A bank closure can affect payment arrangements without making the date a compulsory workplace holiday for every private business nearby.

3. Must every company office be treated as an industrial establishment?

No automatic answer follows from the label “office.” Some state definitions include shops and commercial establishments, while thresholds, exclusions and notifications differ. Record the applicable definition against the actual activity and workforce.

4. Can headquarters select the same festivals for all locations?

It can propose a common preference, but local selection, consultation, notified lists and approval can restrict the final result. Obtain the required local outcome before treating a common preference as the statutory calendar.

5. Is an intranet notice enough wherever display is prescribed?

Only where an applicable legal permission or exemption supports that method. Otherwise maintain the prescribed workplace display too. Employee access to a portal should not be assumed, especially for workers without routine computer access.

6. Does Karnataka always require ten holidays?

Ten describes the ordinary covered private-establishment structure. The Act treats certain establishments differently, and exclusions or conditional exemptions need attention. Do not convert a useful private-sector baseline into an unconditional statewide statement.

7. Should Karnataka branches use every old Form I–VI download?

No. Relevant earlier forms were omitted by the 1998 amendments. Use the amended consultation and display process, retaining the proposal, objections and decisions actually required for the establishment.

8. Is Tamil Nadu festival approval the same as the annual statement?

No. Selection through the Inspector's process establishes the festivals; the annual Form V statement and display are separate requirements. Keep evidence for both rather than reusing an approval letter as proof of dispatch.

9. Can Tamil Nadu change approved festivals immediately through an email?

A proposed change follows the prescribed Form IV process, and the resulting change operates from the following 1 January. An internal email cannot accelerate that statutory change merely because managers agree.

10. When should Kerala's annual approval process start?

Allow enough time to submit the festival proposal before the end of November and complete the consultation and approval process before annual display. An internal December deadline would leave the proposal task too late.

11. Does Kerala require the same authority for every branch group?

No. The rules distinguish relevant authorities, including arrangements affected by the geographical spread of branches. Identify the proper authority for the establishment or group before submitting the proposal.

12. Must a Telangana employer always file the older annual Form I?

The 2021 conditional exemption order must be considered. Record whether it applies and whether lawful holidays and other relevant conditions are satisfied. Avoid treating either compulsory paper filing or complete procedural freedom as universal.

13. Do Telangana's procedural exemptions remove holiday benefits?

No. They simplify specified compliance steps subject to conditions. Paid holiday entitlements, lawful festival arrangements and applicable holiday-work obligations still require attention, supported by an accurate employee communication record.

14. Does Andhra Pradesh's manufacturing exception cover a corporate office automatically?

No. Assess the office's own classification and activities. A factory elsewhere in the same company does not automatically exempt an office from the ordinary prescribed statement procedure.

15. Which calendar applies after an interstate transfer?

Assess the effective assignment, establishment coverage and protected employment terms. Communicate the resulting local calendar from the appropriate date, and review benefits already received rather than relying only on an annual holiday-count comparison.

16. How should a late government notification be handled?

Read its scope first. If it applies, update affected local notices, employee communications, payroll and staffing instructions together. Preserve the previous version and explain the change so branches do not continue using inconsistent dates.

17. Can an optional company holiday replace a fixed statutory holiday?

A company preference does not itself authorise that substitution. Fixed statutory dates and any permitted festival substitution mechanism must be respected. Extra company holidays can be offered separately, with clear policy treatment.

18. Does publishing the calendar authorise employees to work on holidays?

No. Holiday work can require separate advance notices and specific payment or substituted-holiday arrangements. Identify the relevant employee option and procedural conditions rather than relying on a general operational disclaimer.

19. What evidence should a central team request from branches?

Request the applicable list, consultation and approval records, submission evidence where required, displayed version, employee communication and revisions. For an exemption, retain the instrument and evidence satisfying its conditions instead of merely leaving a blank checklist row.

20. Can the next year's dates be copied from the previous calendar?

Use the previous structure as a planning aid, then obtain the applicable annual instruments and decisions. Festival dates, special orders, establishment coverage and company benefits can change. Label unconfirmed dates as provisional until the relevant process is complete.