Appointment Letters Are Now Mandatory: What to Include

Appointment letter checklist: what the Code fixes versus what the rules prescribe

The Code does not print a field-by-field template. It fixes some things itself and hands the rest to rules made by the appropriate Government. This clause-by-clause checklist marks which parts of the appointment-letter duty are mandatory in the Code text, which are set by prescribed rules, and which are left to the employer, with the exact basis for each.

Grounded in Section 6(1)(f) of the OSH Code 2020. The Code does not enumerate specific fields, so this maps the components of the duty rather than a field list. The final row is an inference from the Code's silence, not stated text. No figures in this table are illustrative.

The rule in plain words

Section 6 of the OSH Code lists the duties every employer owes, and clause (f) turns the appointment letter from good practice into a statutory obligation. Every employer must issue a letter of appointment to every employee at the time of appointment. The letter must carry the information, and follow the form, that the appropriate Government prescribes.

The duty is not limited to new joiners. Any employee who was already working and had not been given an appointment letter on or before the Code commenced must be issued one within three months of that commencement. So the obligation reaches backwards to document an existing workforce, not just forwards to new hires.

Two things the Code fixes on its own: that a letter must be issued, and to whom and when it must be issued. Two things it leaves to the rules: exactly what the letter must say, and what format it must take. That split is the whole point of the checklist above.

A worked scenario (illustrative)

The only counting the Code itself requires is the three-month catch-up window. There are no statutory amounts to compute here, so the figures below are illustrative and used only to show how the timing works.

• Setup (illustrative): a manpower staffing agency has 40 workers on client sites who were hired before the Code commenced and hold no written appointment letter, plus 5 new hires planned for next month.
• The 40 existing workers: clause (f) requires each to receive an appointment letter within three months of the Code's commencement. Using an illustrative commencement date of 1 April, the letters would be due by 1 July of the same year. The real commencement date is not in the provided text and is fixed separately, so treat 1 April and 1 July as illustrative arithmetic, not the statutory date.
• The 5 new hires: each must get the letter on appointment, in the prescribed form and with the prescribed information, from day one.
• Net effect: the agency runs one back-issue exercise against the three-month clock for the existing 40, then issues letters at appointment for everyone from that point on.

Exceptions and fine print

The Code does not list the particulars of the letter. It says the information and the form are 'as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government.' Until, and except to the extent, those rules specify fields, the Code text itself does not tell you the exact clauses. The compliant answer is to follow the prescribed form once it is notified, rather than a self-made template.

The three-month catch-up applies only where an employee had not already been issued an appointment letter on or before commencement. An employee who already holds a valid letter is outside that catch-up sentence.

The letter's required contents can vary because the Code points to the appropriate Government rather than a single national template. The precise meaning of appropriate Government is not defined in the provided text, so which government prescribes the form for a given establishment sits outside this section.

What an employer must do

• Treat the appointment letter as mandatory, not optional, for every employee on appointment.
• Identify every existing employee who has no written appointment letter and issue one within three months of commencement; do not let that window lapse.
• Adopt the form prescribed by the appropriate Government and include the information it prescribes, instead of relying on an in-house format, once the prescribed form is notified.
• Keep a record that each new hire received the letter at the point of appointment.
• Make sure the letter is consistent with the employer's other Section 6 duties, for example a safe and hazard-free workplace and no charge levied on employees for safety and health measures, so the paperwork matches actual working conditions.

What a worker can do

• Know that the appointment letter is your employer's statutory duty under Section 6(1)(f), owed to every employee.
• If you started before the Code commenced and never received a letter, you fall within the three-month catch-up and can ask for it.
• As a new joiner, expect the letter at appointment, in the prescribed form and with the prescribed information.
• Note: the provided text creates the duty but does not spell out a specific complaint or enforcement route for non-issuance, so those channels are outside this text.

Where the letter's contents come from

The OSH Code is a framework statute. It creates the duty to issue an appointment letter and delegates the detail to subordinate rules made by the appropriate Government. That is why a compliant appointment letter is defined by two layers: the Code, which says a letter must be issued to every employee on appointment, and the prescribed rules, which say what goes in it and how it looks.

For HR teams the practical takeaway is simple: do not expect the field list to live inside Section 6. Watch for the notification that prescribes the form and the information, because that is where the field-by-field content is fixed. Section 6 tells you the duty exists and who it protects; the prescribed form tells you how to draft the document.

How this duty fits an employer's wider Section 6 obligations

Section 6 bundles the appointment letter with other core duties. Alongside clause (f), an employer must keep the workplace free from hazards likely to cause injury or occupational disease, comply with occupational safety and health standards, provide free annual health examinations to the age groups or classes of employees prescribed by the appropriate Government, and ensure no charge is levied on any employee for safety and health measures such as medical examinations. Placing the appointment letter inside this set signals that formal documentation of the employment relationship is now treated as part of workplace safety and welfare compliance.

For factories, mines, dock work, building or other construction work and plantations, Section 6 adds heightened responsibility for the safety and health of employees, workers and others on the premises, and for safe plant, systems, handling of substances, training and safe access. Manpower and staffing firms deploying workers to such sites therefore carry duties well beyond the letter, and the appointment letter is the documentary starting point of that relationship.

Frequently asked questions