Employment Laws

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ("SEBI"), vide its notification dated August 13, 2021, introduced the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Share Based Employee Benefits and Sweat Equity) Regulations, 2021 ("2021 Regulations") . This was after an expert group, constituted to merge the SEBI (Share Based Employee Benefits) Regulations, 2014 and the SEBI (Issue of Sweat Equity) Regulations, 2002 into the 2021 Regulations recommended various changes to the earlier regulations. ... ...

Gift vouchers for salons and discounts for spa visits – these are the kinds of sops routinely offered to women come March 8. But is this really what women want? One day of the year dedicated to nominally “celebrating” the achievements of a gender that makes up half the population, wrapped in pinks and frills, is nothing short of being disrespectful of the achievements and the achievers themselves. ......

Employment Laws in India have traditionally been governed by contract as well as multifarious and fragmented legislations, both at the central and state level. With a view to harmonising and consolidating the various legislations pertaining to employment, social security, wages, industrial disputes and other relevant labour/employment related matters, the Ministry of Labour and Employment ("Ministry") introduced four bills in 2019 to amalgamate 29 central laws related to labour laws. These bills have been codified and enacted. ......

In the recent case of Sanjeev Mishra vs. Bank of Baroda , the Rajasthan High Court ("Court") has widened the scope of the term ‘workplace harassment’ to include online harassment. In this case, a complaint of sexual harassment was lodged against another employee working in a different State of the same bank. ......

The Apex Court, vide its order dated December 15, 2020, in Steel Authority of India Limited vs. Raghbendra Singh & Ors , propounded that there does not exist any constraint regarding withholding an employee’s gratuity against the recovery of dues from such employee, including penal rent, which in the instant case pertained to the overstay by the employee in official company provided accommodation. ......

While the Code on Wages, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) received Presidential assent on August 08 2019 , the Government was yet to notify the effective date of the Code coming into force. The Code has unified and subsumed four different acts, namely the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 (collectively “Existing Legislation”). ......

The Social Security Code, 2020 ("SS Code") has been passed by both houses of the Parliament and received Presidential assent on September 28, 2020. The SS Code has been enacted to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised or unorganised or any other sectors. ......

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 ("OSH Code") received the President's assent on September 28, 2020 along with two other codes, all of which are yet to be notified by the Government. The OSH Code has subsumed several key pieces of legislation on the working conditions of labour and consolidated it into one comprehensive act, including, inter alia, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, the Factories Act, 1948, etc. ......

On September 28, 2020, three new labour law codes namely, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020 ("Codes"), received the President’s assent. ......