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Glossary

Plain-language definitions of 72 terms you meet in Indian statutory compliance work — across the Code on Wages, the Social Security Code, the OSH Code, the Industrial Relations Code, state levies and POSH. Search by term, abbreviation or wording.

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Showing 72 of 72 terms.

Abstract / notice displayRegisters: The obligation to display prescribed abstracts of statutes, wage rates, working hours, weekly off and the POSH complaint route at a conspicuous place at the establishment.
AggregatorSocial security: A digital intermediary connecting buyers and sellers of services, listed in the Social Security Code and liable to contribute a notified percentage of turnover towards gig and platform worker welfare.
Appointment letterEmployment: The OSH Code requires every employer to issue an appointment letter in the prescribed form to every employee — the item most commonly missing in otherwise compliant establishments.

ClosureIndustrial relations: Permanent closing down of a place of employment or part of it. Notice and compensation are required, and prior government permission applies to establishments above the prescribed headcount.
Code on Social SecurityLabour Codes: The 2020 Code consolidating provident fund, ESI, gratuity, maternity benefit, employee compensation and cess laws, and extending coverage frameworks to gig and platform workers.
Code on WagesLabour Codes: The 2019 Code consolidating minimum wages, payment of wages, bonus and equal remuneration into one statute, and introducing the uniform statutory wage definition and the floor wage.
Combined / consolidated registerRegisters: Simplified register formats prescribed under central rules that allow one register to satisfy several enactments, reducing duplication across the wage, attendance and contract labour registers.
Compounding of offencesEnforcement: Settling specified offences by paying a prescribed sum instead of prosecution. The Codes widen compounding, subject to limits on repeat offences.
Conciliation officerInstitutions: The government officer who mediates industrial disputes before they proceed to adjudication, and whose report records whether settlement was reached.
Continuous serviceEmployment: Uninterrupted service including permitted interruptions such as authorised leave, lay-off, strike that is not illegal, or accident. It determines eligibility for gratuity, retrenchment compensation and certain leave entitlements.
Contract labourContract labour: Workers hired by or through a contractor to work in an establishment they are not directly employed by. Under the OSH Code, deployment in core activities is restricted subject to specified exceptions.
Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) ActCLRAContract labour: The 1970 Act regulating engagement of contract labour: principal employers register, contractors obtain licences, and both maintain prescribed registers and file returns. Its subject matter is now carried into the OSH Code.
Contractor licenceContract labour: The licence a contractor must hold to supply contract labour, endorsed for a number of workers and specified work, with conditions on wages, welfare facilities and records.
Core activityContract labour: The activity for which an establishment is set up, including activities essential to it. The OSH Code restricts engaging contract labour in core activities, with exceptions such as intermittent work and sudden surges.
Creche facilitySocial security: The requirement for establishments above the prescribed headcount to provide a creche within the prescribed distance, with permitted visits by the mother during the working day.

Damages and interest (PF)Enforcement: Amounts levied for delayed remittance of provident fund contributions — interest for the delay period plus damages at graded rates, both attaching to delay regardless of intent.

Earned leaveWorking hours: Annual leave with wages accrued on the basis of days worked, with statutory rules on accumulation, encashment and the minimum number of days that must be permitted to be carried forward.
Electronic Challan cum ReturnECRFiling: The monthly member-wise return uploaded on the EPFO portal listing wages and contributions. Uploading the ECR generates the challan used to remit contributions, typically by the 15th of the following month.
Employees' Provident FundEPFSocial security: The statutory retirement savings scheme under the EPF & MP Act, 1952 (now subsumed in the Code on Social Security). Employer and employee each contribute 12% of the statutory wage base; the fund is administered by EPFO.
Employees' Provident Fund OrganisationEPFOInstitutions: The statutory body that administers provident fund, pension and insurance schemes for covered establishments, issues UANs and receives monthly electronic returns.
Employees' State InsuranceESISocial security: Contributory health insurance and cash-benefit scheme for employees earning up to the notified wage ceiling in covered establishments, administered by ESIC. Employer and employee contribute at notified rates on gross wages.
Employees' State Insurance CorporationESICInstitutions: The body that administers the ESI scheme, allots insurance numbers, runs dispensaries and hospitals, and receives monthly contribution filings.
Equal remunerationWages: The prohibition on discrimination in wages and recruitment on the ground of gender for the same or similar work, now embedded in the Code on Wages.
EstablishmentEstablishment law: A place where any industry, trade, business, manufacture or occupation is carried on. Coverage thresholds under most labour statutes are computed per establishment.

Fixed-term employmentFTEEmployment: Direct employment for a stated term, recognised under the IR Code, with hours, wages and benefits at par with permanent employees doing the same work and pro-rata gratuity on completing the term.
Floor wageWages: A national minimum floor fixed by the Central Government under the Code on Wages, below which no state may fix its minimum wages. States may fix rates above it.

Gig worker and platform workerSocial security: Workers earning outside a traditional employer-employee relationship, including those engaged through online platforms. The Social Security Code provides for aggregator contributions and welfare schemes for them.
GratuitySocial security: A lump-sum terminal benefit payable on separation after qualifying service, computed at 15 days' wages for each completed year. Fixed-term employees earn it pro-rata under the Social Security Code without the five-year rule.
Gratuity nominationSocial security: The employee's declaration (traditionally Form F) naming who receives gratuity on death. Employers must obtain it after one year of service and update it on changes in family status.
Grievance redressal committeeIndustrial relations: An internal committee with equal employer and worker representation, required above a prescribed headcount, for resolving individual grievances within set timelines.

Half-yearly / annual returnFiling: Periodic consolidated returns required under several statutes and state rules — commonly half-yearly under contract labour rules and annually under wages, bonus and factory rules.

Industrial Relations CodeIR CodeLabour Codes: The 2020 Code consolidating trade union recognition, standing orders and industrial dispute law, introducing the negotiating union concept, fixed-term employment and revised thresholds for lay-off and retrenchment approval.
Inspector-cum-FacilitatorInstitutions: The inspection role introduced by the Codes: alongside enforcement, the officer advises employers and workers on compliance, with web-based and randomised inspection schemes replacing purely discretionary visits.
Insured Person numberIP numberSocial security: The identifier allotted to an employee registered under ESI. It is required for the employee and dependants to access ESI medical and cash benefits.
Inter-state migrant workerISMWOSH: A worker recruited from another state, including one who moves on their own for employment, entitled under the OSH Code to portability of benefits, a journey allowance and inclusion in a database.
Internal CommitteeICPOSH: The POSH committee constituted by the employer: a senior woman employee as Presiding Officer, at least half women members, and an external member from an NGO or association with relevant expertise.

Labour Welfare FundLWFState levies: A state fund financed by small employer and employee contributions, used for welfare activities. Applicability, rates and periodicity (monthly, half-yearly or annual) vary state by state.
Lay-offIndustrial relations: The employer's failure or inability to give employment to a worker whose name is on the muster roll, for reasons such as shortage of power or raw material. Eligible workers receive lay-off compensation.
Local CommitteeLCPOSH: The district-level committee constituted by the District Officer to receive complaints from workplaces with fewer than ten employees, or where the complaint is against the employer.

Maternity benefitSocial security: Paid leave and related benefits for eligible women employees — 26 weeks for the first two children (12 weeks thereafter), with adoption and commissioning mother entitlements, plus nursing breaks on return.
Minimum wagesWages: Rates fixed by the appropriate government by scheduled employment, skill category, zone and sometimes establishment size. They are typically revised periodically and include a variable dearness allowance component.
Model standing ordersIndustrial relations: Standing orders notified by the government that apply to an establishment until it obtains certification of its own, giving a default set of service conditions.
Muster rollRegisters: The attendance register showing days and hours worked by each employee, and the primary record inspectors use to test wage, overtime and leave compliance.

National and Festival HolidaysNFHWorking hours: State-mandated paid holidays including the national holidays (26 January, 1 May, 15 August, 2 October) plus a state-notified list, with a declaration or return required in several states.
National floor wageWages: Popular term for the centrally fixed floor wage. Historically a non-statutory national floor level minimum wage was advised to states; the Code on Wages makes a floor wage statutory.
Negotiating union / negotiating councilIndustrial relations: Under the IR Code, the sole union with the prescribed level of membership becomes the negotiating union; where no union meets the threshold, a negotiating council of qualifying unions is constituted.

Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions CodeOSH CodeLabour Codes: The 2020 Code consolidating thirteen enactments on registration, licensing, working conditions, safety, welfare facilities, contract labour and inter-state migrant workers. Most obligations depend on state rules.
OvertimeWorking hours: Work beyond the prescribed daily or weekly hours, payable at twice the ordinary rate of wages, subject to statutory limits on overtime hours in a quarter as prescribed by rules.

POSH ActPOSH: The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, requiring a policy, an Internal Committee at ten or more employees, awareness training, inquiry procedure and annual reporting.
POSH annual returnPOSH: The annual report to the District Officer on the number of complaints received and disposed of, alongside the disclosure the company makes in its board's report.
Principal employerContract labour: The establishment for whose benefit contract labour is engaged. It carries registration, record and oversight duties, and becomes liable for wages and certain welfare facilities if the contractor defaults.
Professional TaxPTState levies: A state-level tax on income from employment, trade or profession. Employers deduct PT from salaries under a PTRC registration and pay tax on their own account under a PTEC registration, where the state levies it.
PTEC / PTRCState levies: PTEC (enrolment certificate) covers the employer's or professional's own professional tax liability; PTRC (registration certificate) covers the obligation to deduct and remit professional tax from employees' salaries.

Register of wagesRegisters: The record of wage period, wages payable, deductions and net paid for each employee, supported by wage slips issued to employees.
RetrenchmentIndustrial relations: Termination of a worker for reasons other than disciplinary action, retirement, ill-health or non-renewal of contract. It requires notice, compensation and, above a threshold headcount, prior government permission.

Set-on and set-offWages: The bonus mechanism by which allocable surplus in excess of the maximum bonus is carried forward (set-on), and a deficiency is carried forward to be adjusted against future surplus (set-off).
Shops and Establishments ActS&E ActEstablishment law: State legislation governing commercial establishments: registration, working hours, weekly rest, leave, opening and closing hours, employment of women at night and record-keeping. Requirements differ by state.
Single registration and single returnLabour Codes: The Codes' simplification objective: one electronic registration and consolidated returns replacing multiple act-wise registrations and filings, implemented through central and state rules.
Spread-overWorking hours: The total period between the start and end of a working day including rest intervals. Rules cap it (commonly ten and a half or twelve hours) even where actual working hours are within limits.
Standing ordersIndustrial relations: The certified rules of employment for workers in an establishment — classification, hours, attendance, leave, misconduct and disciplinary procedure. Establishments above the prescribed threshold must adopt or certify them.
Statutory bonusWages: Annual bonus payable to eligible employees under the Payment of Bonus provisions, at a minimum of 8.33% and up to 20% of wages, subject to eligibility and calculation limits notified from time to time.
Strike and lock-outIndustrial relations: A concerted stoppage of work by workers, and the closing of a place of employment or suspension of work by an employer. Both require prescribed notice, with restrictions during conciliation and proceedings.

Timely payment of wagesWages: The Code on Wages requirement to pay wages within prescribed periods after the wage period ends, and to settle wages of a separated employee within two working days of removal, dismissal, retrenchment or resignation.
Total remunerationWages: All remuneration payable to an employee, used as the denominator when testing whether excluded components exceed the 50% limit in the statutory wage definition.

Universal Account NumberUANSocial security: A permanent 12-digit number linking all provident fund member IDs of an employee across employers, so the accumulation follows the person rather than the job.

Variable Dearness AllowanceVDAWages: The inflation-linked component of minimum wages, revised (often half-yearly) with reference to the consumer price index so that the real value of the wage is maintained.

Wage ceilingSocial security: The wage threshold up to which a social security contribution is mandatory or is computed. Provident fund contributions are commonly computed to a statutory ceiling; ESI coverage applies up to a notified wage limit.
Wage periodWages: The period for which wages are payable — daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and not exceeding one month. It drives the statutory timeline for payment of wages.
Wage slipRegisters: The statement given to each employee showing wages earned, components, deductions and net pay for the wage period. Issuing it is a statutory obligation, not a courtesy.
Wages (Section 2(y))Wages: The Code on Wages definition of wages: basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, excluding a listed set of components — but if those exclusions exceed 50% of total remuneration, the excess is deemed to be wages.
Weekly off / rest dayWorking hours: The mandatory rest day in a week. Where work on the rest day is permitted, a compensatory off within the prescribed period is required.
Works committeeIndustrial relations: A joint employer-worker committee required in establishments above a prescribed headcount, to promote good relations and address day-to-day differences before they escalate to disputes.

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Definitions are written for orientation and use everyday language rather than statutory wording. Thresholds, rates and limits change by notification, and several terms are defined differently across Acts and state rules. Read the definition in the relevant statute before relying on it.

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