Rules of Employment in India

The applicability of employment legislation in India is determined by the industry sector, the class and number of employees, the location of business establishment and the notifications issued by the relevant government. An employer may nevertheless choose to formulate its work rules, company policies, employee handbooks, or similar documents into employee contracts of employment, though in doing so the employee consent is required and for this reason, many employers establish policies or handbooks that are expressed not to form part of the contract of employment, but with which employees are nevertheless required to comply. The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 (“Act”) governs the rules and conditions of the employment in industries covered under the Act. 

Applicability of the Act

The Act is applicable to all the industrial establishments where 100 or more workers are/ were employed on any day during the preceding 12 months. However, the government under this Act has power to make the rules applicable to establishments employing less than 100 workers after giving not less than month's notice in the official gazette. A reference can be made to the State of West Bengal wherein the Government made this Act applicable to industrial establishments where there were less than 100 employees on any day during the preceding 12 months. Similar situations arose in various other states as well. On the other hand the government may by following the same procedure also exempt, any industrial establishment or a class thereof, with or without conditions.

This article is a part of  INDO JAPAN TRADE AND INVESTMENT BULLETIN, November 2013 and can be read or downloaded from our Slideshare account...

Other section of this article are:-

• OBLIGATION TO ESTABLISH THE RULES OF EMPLOYMENT

• CONTENTS OF RULES OF EMPLOYMENT

• PROCEDURE TO ESTABLISH AND MODIFY THE RULES OF EMPLOYMENT

• VOLUNTARILY ACCEPTED RULES OF EMPLOYMENT

Conclusion:- Therefore it can be concluded that every employer whether governed by the Industrial Standing orders or not ought to frame their own rules which govern and bind their organization. The rules framed by the organization should not be unreasonable or arbitrary. The employers must keep in mind that the requirement to frame their own bye-laws is not to give them an unnecessary upper hand with respect of the employees but is indeed to establish a clear employer-employee relationship.