Plain-English definitions of the laws, forms, filings and systems that Indian plant HR, compliance and security teams deal with every day.
Terms from the repealed Contract Labour Act, such as Form V and Form XIII, stay here because people still search for them. They are marked Legacy, with what replaces them.
An annual return is the yearly statement an employer files with the labour authorities summarising its workforce, working conditions and statutory compliance. Under the OSH (Central) Rules, 2026 it is a single electronic return for the calendar year, due by the last day of February.
An appointment letter is a written document an employer issues to a worker setting out the job, wages and key terms of employment. Under the OSH Code it is a statutory duty in a prescribed format for every employee, including contract workers.
Background verification (BGV) is the process of confirming a person's identity, address, education, employment history and, where lawful and relevant, criminal record before or soon after they are engaged. For contract workers it is typically arranged by the contractor or principal employer at onboarding.
Biometric attendance is the recording of when a worker starts and finishes work by verifying a physical trait, such as a fingerprint, face or iris, instead of a card, signature or PIN. Because it ties each punch to a real person, it is widely used as the basis for wage, overtime and contractor-billing calculations.
Buddy punching is when one worker records attendance for an absent colleague, and a ghost worker is a person who appears on attendance or payroll records but does not actually work at the site. Both inflate wage and contractor bills.
CLMS stands for Contract Labour Management System: software that manages a site's contract workforce, from contractor onboarding and gate passes to attendance, wage verification and statutory registers. It gives the principal employer a single, auditable record of every contractor and contract worker.
The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 (CLRA) was India's central law regulating contract labour through registration of principal employers, licensing of contractors and statutory registers. It was repealed on 21 November 2025.
The Code on Wages, 2019 is the Labour Code that governs minimum wages, payment of wages, bonus and equal pay for all employees. It replaced the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 on 21 November 2025.
Contract labour means workers who are hired by or through a contractor to do work for another organisation, the principal employer, rather than being employed by it directly. They remain on the contractor's rolls, but the principal employer shares responsibility for their wages, welfare and safety.
Contractor invoice reconciliation is checking a contractor's bill against the verified record of work done, including headcount, attendance, overtime and agreed rates, before paying it. It catches overbilling such as inflated headcount, unapproved overtime and absent workers.
A contractor licence is the permission a contractor needs from the labour authority before deploying contract labour above the legal threshold. Under the OSH Code the threshold is 50 or more contract workers, and the licence caps how many workers the contractor may employ on any day.
ECR (Electronic Challan cum Return) is the monthly online return employers file with EPFO, reporting each member's wages and PF contributions and generating the payment challan in one step. It is filed on the EPFO Unified Portal against each employee's UAN.
Earned wage access (EWA) lets a worker draw part of the wages they have already earned in a pay period before the regular payday. Access is usually calculated from verified attendance, and the amount drawn is recovered from the next salary payout.
Establishment registration is the single registration an employer obtains under the OSH Code for a workplace, replacing separate registrations such as those under the Factories Act and the Contract Labour Act. Under the Central Rules it is applied for online in Form I on the Shram Suvidha Portal.
Face recognition attendance identifies a worker by matching a live image of their face against an enrolled template, using a dedicated reader, a mobile app or a CCTV camera. It is contactless and fast at shift change, and many readers check for liveness so a photo or video cannot be used to punch in.
A minimum wage is the lowest rate an employer may legally pay for a category of work; a floor wage is the national baseline the Central Government sets, below which no state may fix its minimum wage. Under the Code on Wages, 2019 minimum wages apply to all employees.
Form V was the certificate a principal employer issued to a contractor under the CLRA Central Rules, 1971. The contractor attached it to its licence application; under the OSH Code, central licence applications use Form XXI on the Shram Suvidha Portal.
Form XIII was the Register of Workmen Employed by Contractor under Rule 75 of the CLRA Central Rules, 1971, kept by the contractor for each establishment. It recorded each contract worker's identity, designation, addresses and dates of joining and leaving.
A gate pass is a time-bound authorisation that lets a specific person enter a site, usually issued after identity, document and safety checks. In factories it is the point where contract-labour compliance — a valid contractor licence, headcount within the licence limit, induction and PF/ESI enrolment — is enforced before entry.
An HRMS (Human Resource Management System) is software that manages an organisation's own employees: records, attendance and leave, payroll, performance and lifecycle events. Unlike a CLMS, it is built around the employer–employee relationship and usually does not model contractors or contract-labour registers.
The Labour Codes are the four laws that replaced 29 central labour laws in India: the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. They came into force on 21 November 2025.
A muster roll is the attendance register that records which workers were present on each working day, used as the basis for wages and inspections. Under the Labour Codes it is maintained as an attendance register-cum-muster roll, which can be kept electronically.
The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH Code) is the Labour Code covering workplace safety, health, welfare, working hours and contract labour. It came into force on 21 November 2025, replacing 13 laws including the Factories Act, 1948 and the Contract Labour Act, 1970.
PF (Provident Fund) is a retirement savings scheme run by EPFO to which employer and employee both contribute; ESI (Employees' State Insurance) is a health and cash-benefit insurance scheme run by ESIC for employees earning up to a notified wage ceiling. Both now operate under the Code on Social Security, 2020.
A principal employer is the owner or occupier of the establishment where contract labour works; a contractor is the person or firm that supplies or engages that labour. The contractor is the direct employer of contract workers, but the principal employer carries legal duties for them.
RD Service (Registered Device Service) is UIDAI-specified driver software that lets a certified biometric device capture a fingerprint or iris sample and encrypt and sign it before it is used for Aadhaar authentication. UIDAI has phased out L0 fingerprint devices in favour of more secure L1 devices.
The Shram Suvidha Portal is the Ministry of Labour and Employment's online platform for labour-law registration, returns and inspections. Under the OSH Code it is where establishments register, contractors apply for licences and employers file returns, each identified by a Labour Identification Number (LIN).
Access control is the system that decides who may enter which area and when, and a turnstile is the physical barrier at a gate that lets one person through at a time once access is granted. In factories the two are usually linked to biometric readers and the gate pass, so only workers who clear identity and compliance checks can enter.
A UAN (Universal Account Number) is the 12-digit number EPFO gives each provident fund member, which stays the same across every job they hold. Employers report contributions against the UAN in the monthly ECR.
Visitor management is the process and software for registering, approving, badging and tracking people who are not regular workers, such as vendors, auditors, drivers and guests. It records who visited, whom they met, which areas they entered and when they left.
Under the Labour Codes, "wages" has a single definition (Section 2(y) of the Code on Wages, 2019): broadly basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. If the excluded items together exceed 50% of total remuneration, the excess is added back and treated as wages.
