Rights of Fixed-Term Employees Under India's Labour Codes

Your entitlements as a fixed-term employee

This table shows what the supplied labour-code text gives you across the main heads, and the one route to complain. Where the supplied law does not cover a head, the cell says so plainly instead of guessing. Read the caption for the parts that a Government notification or the rules can change.

Uses only the supplied statute. The gratuity rate of fifteen days' wages can be changed by Central Government notification. Cells marked 'Not stated in supplied text' are not covered by the provided law. The overtime rate, break intervals, and spread over are set by Government notification. The complaint form number is set by rules.

What your employer must give you

Your pay must reach you on a fixed schedule. If you are paid monthly, your wages are due before the seventh day of the next month. Paid daily, you get them at the end of the shift; weekly, before your weekly day off; fortnightly, within two days of the fortnight ending. Your employer cannot take money out of your wages unless the Code specifically allows that deduction.

When your contract ends, your final money comes fast. If you are removed, dismissed, retrenched, resign, or lose the job because the workplace shuts down, your dues are payable within two working days.

Your working day is capped at eight hours. The breaks you get, and how far your hours can be spread across the day, are fixed by Government notification, so the exact numbers depend on the rules that apply to you. The supplied law sets the eight-hour ceiling but does not state an overtime pay rate, so check your state rules for that.

The strongest right written just for fixed-term workers is gratuity. Normally gratuity needs five years of continuous service. For you, that five-year wait is waived the moment your fixed term expires. You earn gratuity for the time you actually put in.

• Monthly wages: before the seventh day of the next month.
• Final dues on exit: within two working days.
• Working day: eight hours, with breaks and spread over set by Government notification.
• Only deductions the Code authorises can be taken from your wages.
• Gratuity when your fixed term ends, with no five-year minimum.

How your end-of-term gratuity is calculated

Gratuity is fifteen days' wages for every completed year of service, based on your last drawn wages. A part-year counts as a full year only if it runs beyond six months. The Central Government can change 'fifteen days' to another number of days by notification, so treat fifteen as the figure in the supplied law, not a fixed promise for all time.

Here is an illustration with made-up numbers, not official figures. Say your last drawn wage works out to 800 rupees a day (illustrative) and your fixed term ran three years and eight months. Three full years count, and the extra eight months, being more than six, counts as a fourth year, so you have four units. Gratuity equals fifteen days times 800 rupees times four, which is 48,000 rupees in this example. Put your own real daily wage and tenure in place of these numbers to get your figure.

What to do if you are denied

Start in writing. Put your claim in a short, dated request to your employer or HR, whether it is unpaid wages, an unlawful deduction, over-long hours, or gratuity you were not paid when your term ended. Keep a copy of what you sent.

Collect your proof before you escalate: your appointment or contract letter, payslips, bank credits, attendance records, and the exact end date of your fixed term. Note the date the problem first arose, because your time limit to complain runs from that date.

If the employer still refuses, take it to the Grievance Redressal Committee described in the next section. Do not delay, because the window to file has a hard limit.

• Write down your claim and keep a dated copy.
• Collect your contract, payslips, and attendance record.
• Note the exact date the problem arose; your time limit runs from there.
• If refused, move to the Grievance Redressal Committee.

Where to complain: authority, form and time limit

Your route is the Grievance Redressal Committee. Every industrial establishment with twenty or more workers must have one, or more than one, to settle individual grievances like yours.

Who can file: any aggrieved worker, which includes you. Time limit: within one year from the date the cause of your complaint arose, so act in time. How long it takes: the committee may complete its proceedings within thirty days of receiving your application, and it decides by majority.

The committee has equal numbers from the employer's side and the workers' side, with a chairperson who rotates between the two sides each year, and it must include women workers in fair proportion. The exact application form and the way members are chosen are set by the rules, so ask for the prescribed form when you file.

• Authority: Grievance Redressal Committee (workplaces with twenty or more workers).
• Who can file: any aggrieved worker.
• Time limit to file: within one year of the cause of the dispute.
• Decision: the committee may finish within thirty days, by majority.
• Form: prescribed by the rules (form number not in the supplied law).

Where to check your state

India's labour codes let the states and the appropriate Government notify their own rules, thresholds, and numbers. Break intervals, spread over, any overtime rate, wage-payment timing beyond the basic limits above, and the working details of the Grievance Redressal Committee where you are all depend on the notifications that apply to your workplace. Confirm your state's position before you rely on any single figure, and always use the exact prescribed form when you file a complaint.

Frequently asked questions