India: Employment and HR

Human Resources departments handle some of the most extensive collections of personal information within an organisation. Recruitment records, identity documents, salary details, bank information, attendance records, health information, performance reviews and employee communications can all involve personal data. For this reason, data protection laws for HR departments are no longer simply an IT or legal concern.

The increasing use of remote working, Bring Your Own Device (“BYOD”) arrangements, cloud-based platforms and workplace monitoring software has made employee privacy an important consideration for employers in India. Organisations routinely collect and process employee data through access-control systems, company email accounts, endpoint security tools, attendance systems, CCTV, location services, and cybersecurity platforms.

India has emerged as the global hub for capability centres, but establishing one requires navigating complex employment laws, intellectual property protections, and data governance frameworks. Foreign businesses must understand how workforce structuring, restrictive covenants, IP ownership, and compliance obligations intersect to protect their investments and mitigate legal risks in this rapidly evolving landscape.

For over more than a decade since the enactment of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 [commonly known as the POSH Act] one of the most persistent challenges has not been the absence of law, but the absence of procedural clarity in its implementation.

The interface between an employer’s disciplinary powers and the statutory framework under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 also known as the POSH Act has long remained an area of legal uncertainty. While employers undoubtedly possess administrative authority to maintain workplace discipline, the POSH Act creates a specialized mechanism for dealing with allegations of sexual harassment through Internal Committee (ICs).

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) came into force following the landmark Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan case, which highlighted the need for legal frameworks to address sexual harassment at the workplace.

India’s gig economy is expanding rapidly, but gig workers do not automatically receive the same provident fund protection as traditional employees. With the Code on Social Security, 2020 now in force and the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 notified, has India finally addressed the social-security gap or has it simply created a new, scheme-based framework that still falls short of EPF protection?

For years, Indian professionals on temporary assignments in the UK faced a quiet but costly problem: paying into two social security systems for the same job, with no additional pension benefit to show for it. That changed on 15 July 2026, when the India-UK Double Contributions Convention (DCC) came into force alongside the broader Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), finally addressing what officials on both sides had long acknowledged as a sunk cost for mobile talent.

Under the repealed Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995, paragraph 3(1) prescribed an employer’s contribution of 8.33% of the employee’s pay to the Pension Fund.

インドの2020年労使関係法典（IRC）および2026年労使関係（中央）規則は、労働組合、...

The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 has fundamentally reshaped India's labour law framework, establishing clear distinctions between lawful retrenchment and wrongful termination while introducing new procedural...

In the realm of industrial and labour jurisprudence, the burden of proof and the standard of evidence required to substantiate claims of illegal termination or unjustified removal from service remain subjects...