Rights of Employees on Probation Under India's Labour Codes

What you are owed while on probation, head by head

This is what India's labour codes give you during probation. The supplied law sets no weaker standard for probationers, so your core protections are the same as a confirmed employee's. Where a value is fixed by government rule, or a head is simply not in the law supplied for this page, the note says so. No figure here has been invented for probationers.

Rule-set cells (alternate pay time limit, authorised-deduction list, overtime rate, spread-over, standing-order schedule, complaint form and filing manner) are fixed by government notification or rules and carry no number here. Leave, PF, ESI, and broader safety duties are marked not stated in the supplied text. No worked example with assumed numbers is used in this table.

What your employer must give you

Being on probation does not lower the floor the labour codes set for you. In the law supplied for this page there is no separate, weaker standard for probationers. The same core duties an employer owes a confirmed worker, it owes you.

Some things people expect to see are simply not in the supplied law: paid leave rules, Provident Fund and ESI thresholds, and the wider safety duties beyond the daily-hours cap. That does not mean you have no such rights. It means you should confirm them from your state rules and your workplace standing orders, not from this page.

• Your wages, on time. If you are paid monthly, they are due before the seventh day of the next month. Weekly pay is due before the weekly holiday, daily pay at the end of the shift, fortnightly pay before the end of the second day after the fortnight. [COW Section 17]
• A clean final settlement. If your probation ends with the employer letting you go, or you resign, your wages must be paid within two working days of that exit. [COW Section 17]
• No deductions the law does not allow. Your pay cannot be cut except for deductions the Code authorises, and a payment you are made to hand back is treated as a deduction too. [COW Section 18]
• A capped working day. You cannot be required or allowed to work more than eight hours in a day. Rest intervals, how far the day may be spread, and any hours beyond eight are set by government notification. [OSH Section 25]
• Service that counts toward gratuity. Gratuity becomes payable after five years of continuous service. The supplied law does not say probation months are excluded from that count, though you will usually not have reached five years while still on probation, unless the exit is due to death or disablement. [SS Section 53]

What to do if you are denied

Most probation disputes are about pay that is late, cut, or withheld, or about hours pushed past the limit. These are won on records and on acting inside the time limit, so move in order.

• Put it in writing. Ask for exactly what you are owed in a dated message you keep a copy of. For unpaid or late wages, name the pay period and the due date under Section 17.
• Keep your own record. Save your appointment or probation letter, payslips, attendance, and any messages. These decide most wage and hours disputes.
• Raise it internally first. If your establishment has a Grievance Redressal Committee, your individual grievance goes there. [IR Section 4]
• Watch the clock. You have one year from the day the problem arose to take an individual grievance to that committee. Do not let it lapse while you wait for an informal fix. [IR Section 4]

Where to complain: authority, form and time limit

For an individual grievance, the labour codes point you to a committee inside the workplace before anything else. Here is who it is, who can use it, and the deadlines that bind both you and it.

• Authority: the Grievance Redressal Committee. Every industrial establishment employing twenty or more workers must have one or more of these for resolving individual grievances. [IR Section 4]
• Who can file: any aggrieved worker. A probationer is a worker, so this route is open to you.
• Time limit to file: within one year from the date the cause of the dispute arose. [IR Section 4]
• How long it takes: the committee may complete its proceedings within thirty days of receiving your application, and it decides by majority. [IR Section 4]
• The form: the manner of filing your application, and the way committee members are chosen, are prescribed by rules. The supplied text gives no form number, so use the form your state or establishment prescribes.
• Women workers: the committee must include women workers in at least the proportion they form of the workforce. [IR Section 4]

How your standing orders can set your terms

Larger establishments run on certified standing orders, a written rulebook the employer must prepare from the government's model standing orders and then have certified. Where that chapter applies to your workplace, these certified orders, not word-of-mouth, state your terms of service. You are entitled to know what they say, so ask to see them.

• The employer must draft standing orders on the matters the law lists, and any other necessary matter, then forward them to the certifying officer for certification. [IR Section 30]
• Where the employer adopts the Central Government's model standing order, it is treated as certified. [IR Section 30]
• The supplied text does not list which matters the schedule covers, so whether probation status, its length, or the route to confirmation appear there is not something this page can confirm. Read the certified standing orders that apply to you.

Where to check your state

India's labour codes leave many numbers and procedures to be notified by the appropriate Government, which is often your state. The alternate pay time limit, the overtime rate, spread-over limits, leave, and the exact grievance form are all set at that level. Two probationers in two states can face different rules on the very same point. Before you act, confirm your own state's position on the head that affects you, and check your workplace standing orders alongside it.

Frequently asked questions