Practical Indian tax, financial reporting, labour, state law and business compliance guides for CAs, accountants and businesses.
An employer should not assume that one head-office Internal Committee covers every Delhi branch. The POSH framework specifically addresses offices and administrative units located at different places and requires committees at the relevant units and offices. A company-wide policy can be coordinated centrally, but the committee structure needs a separate location-based assessment.
By Team assureOffice
Paying a stipend does not, by itself, make a person a statutory apprentice. Nor does a college letter automatically create an apprenticeship under the Apprentices Act, 1961. A Maharashtra employer needs to establish the legal training route, the required contract and registration process, and the training actually delivered before relying on an apprentice-specific exclusion.
By Team assureOfficeA platform should examine the effect of an account restriction before calling it a temporary technical measure. Karnataka’s gig-worker legislation defines termination broadly enough to include materially restricting access, blocking an account and suspension, regardless of duration. A two-day restriction can therefore require a legal assessment even though the worker’s contract remains on the system.
By Team assureOfficeA Jaipur restaurant purchasing deliveries and a company operating a delivery marketplace do not necessarily have the same role. Yet calling the restaurant a customer is not enough to settle its position. The Rajasthan legislation uses a broad aggregator definition, including entities coordinating with aggregators to provide services. Classification needs the actual operating arrangement, not only the heading on an invoice.
By Team assureOfficeESI should not normally stop in the same month merely because a covered employee receives an increment above the applicable wage ceiling. A current notification preserves employee status for the remainder of the contribution period where wages cross the ceiling after the period begins. Payroll must first establish coverage at the start of the period and then distinguish an increment, retrospective revision and correction of an earlier error.
By Team assureOfficeA certificate of coverage matters when an operative social-security agreement allows an employee to remain in one country’s system during a qualifying international assignment. It is evidence of the applicable coverage, not a general exemption from all employment law. The employer must identify the agreement, employee, assignment, covered legislation and certificate period before changing payroll.
By Team assureOfficeA high joining salary does not, by itself, allow an existing EPF member to stop membership. Payroll must distinguish a first-time excluded employee from a continuing member, examine any full withdrawal or exemption and apply the scheme and wage ceiling operative on the relevant date. An appointment-letter waiver is not a substitute for that analysis.
By Team assureOfficeA directly engaged fixed-term employee can qualify for gratuity when a qualifying contract ends without completing the ordinary five-year period. The current official position requires at least one year of service under the contract. It does not mean every person described as contractual receives gratuity immediately, and it does not make agency labour the principal employer’s direct fixed-term workforce.
By Team assureOfficeThey can, but the answer changes with the obligation. Indian employment law does not use one universal company headcount. An employee, worker, contract labourer and statutory apprentice are different legal categories. An establishment may be covered by one chapter while another duty has a different threshold, counting unit or look-back period.
By Team assureOfficeA construction-cess demand can appear to duplicate an owner’s advance payment, a contractor’s bill deduction or a collection made during building approval. The correct response is a project-specific reconciliation showing what was due, what was collected, what reached the welfare board and what was credited in assessment. A receipt bundle without that connection may leave the apparent duplication unresolved.
By Team assureOfficeAn office renovation in Delhi can involve building or other construction work even when nobody constructs a new building. Alteration, repair and maintenance fall within the statutory language. A tenant-funded fit-out, civil partition work or installation project therefore needs assessment before the team assumes that an existing occupancy certificate or the contractor’s invoice settles labour compliance.
By Team assureOfficeYes. Direct recruitment does not remove the need to assess inter-State migrant-worker duties. The OSH Code definition reaches workers recruited directly by an employer and, within its wage-linked scope, workers who move independently to another state and obtain employment there. The older assumption that coverage requires recruitment through a contractor is therefore an unsafe starting point for Maharashtra employers in 2026.
By Team assureOffice