Rights of Housekeeping and Facility Staff Under India's Labour Codes

What housekeeping and facility staff are entitled to

Here is what the labour codes give you as a housekeeping or facility worker, head by head. Cells that depend on rules your Government notifies, or that the law this page relies on does not fix, are marked in the caption so you know where to check further.

Rule-set cells: rest breaks and the spread of the work day, the detailed welfare-facility standards, and the exact complaint form are set by Government or by rules, not fixed as numbers in the supplied text. Not stated in supplied text: overtime rate, leave, PF and ESI, and the gratuity amount. No cell uses an illustrative or assumed number. Every threshold shown (eight hours, five years, and worker counts of 20, 50, 100 and 250, plus the seven-day, two-day, one-year and thirty-day limits) appears in the supplied text.

What your employer must give you

You are the person who keeps buildings, offices and public spaces clean and running. The labour codes treat you as a worker with the same core rights as anyone else on the floor. Here is what your employer owes you.

The exact standards for these welfare facilities are set by the Central Government, so the fittings and sizes come from the rules, not from a single fixed number in the law itself.

• Your full wages, paid on time. If you are paid monthly, your wages must reach you before the seventh day of the next month. Daily-paid workers are paid at the end of the shift, and weekly-paid workers before the weekly holiday.
• Your last wages fast when you leave. If you are removed, dismissed, retrenched, or you resign, your wages must be paid within two working days.
• A limited working day. You cannot be required to work more than eight hours in a day. Your rest breaks and how far the day is spread out are set by a Government notification.
• Clean and separate welfare facilities: washing places for men and women separately, bathing places and locker rooms for men, women and transgender staff separately, a place to keep and dry the clothes you are not wearing at work, and seats if your job keeps you standing.
• First-aid you can reach. First-aid boxes or cupboards must be stocked and within reach during all working hours.
• A canteen if the place is large enough. Where one hundred or more workers, counting contract labour, ordinarily work, the employer must provide a canteen.
• A rest-room and lunch-room where more than fifty workers ordinarily work, and a welfare officer where two hundred and fifty or more workers ordinarily work.
• Gratuity for long service. After five years of continuous service you are entitled to gratuity. You do not need the full five years if you leave because of death or disablement.

What to do if you are denied

If any of the above is missing, short, or cut without a reason the law allows, you do not have to accept it. Move step by step and keep proof.

• Write down what happened: dates you were not paid, amounts cut, hours worked beyond eight, facilities that are missing. Keep payslips, messages and duty records.
• Ask your employer or supervisor in writing to fix it, and keep a copy of what you send.
• Check whether money was taken from your pay that the Code does not allow. Any payment you are made to hand back to the employer counts as a deduction from your wages.
• If your workplace is an industrial establishment with twenty or more workers, take your individual grievance to its Grievance Redressal Committee.
• Note your deadline. You have one year from the day the problem arose to file that grievance.

Where to complain: authority, form and time limit

The clearest route for an individual complaint is the Grievance Redressal Committee. The law requires this committee in an industrial establishment that employs twenty or more workers. It is not promised for every workplace, so this route applies when your establishment is of that kind and has twenty or more workers.

Who can file: any aggrieved worker can bring an individual grievance to the committee. The committee is made up of equal numbers of employer and worker representatives, with women workers represented in at least the same share as they are in the workforce, and it can have at most ten members.

Time limit to file: you have one year from the date the cause of your grievance arose. After you file, the committee may complete its proceedings within thirty days of receiving your application, and it decides by majority.

The form: the manner of filing and the application format are set by the rules made under the code, so use the prescribed form for your establishment. The exact form number is not fixed in the law this page relies on.

Where to check your state

India's labour codes leave many details, thresholds and welfare standards to be notified by Government, and states issue their own rules. That means the exact rest breaks, facility standards, filing form and some timelines can differ where you work. Before you act, confirm the position for your own state and read the rules your state has notified, so your complaint uses the right form and the right deadline.

Deductions your employer cannot make

Your wages are protected. The employer can make only the deductions the Code allows, and nothing else.

If money leaves your pay and does not fit an allowed reason, treat it as a wrongful deduction and raise it through the steps above.

• Any money you are made to pay back to the employer or the employer's agent is treated as a deduction from your wages.
• Losing pay because an increment or promotion was withheld, because you were moved to a lower post, or because you were suspended, is not counted as a banned deduction only when the employer's own rules for this meet what the Government has notified.

Frequently asked questions