Legal Aspects of Employment Laws- Part-1

Having covered 4 major cornerstones of HR foundation i.e. Talent Acquisition, Organizational Development, Employee Engagement & Service Delivery. I shall attempt to cover Compliance & Law of the Land this time.

To refresh, learning on the cornerstones we have covered so far please click on the respective link provided below :

Talent Acquisition
http://hrsuccessmantra.blogspot.com/2009/05/cornerstones-of-hr-value-chain-talent_02.html

Organization Development
http://hrsuccessmantra.blogspot.com/2009/06/cornerstones-of-hr-value-chain.html

Employee Engagement
http://hrsuccessmantra.blogspot.com/2009/07/cornerstone-of-hr-value-chain-employee.html

HR service Delivery
http://hrsuccessmantra.blogspot.com/2009/06/cornerstone-of-hr-value-chain-hr.html

In smaller to medium organization, Controllership and Legal Compliance ownership rests with HR Leader while in bigger organization they have their on specific departments to ensure compliance to the law of the land.

In this series, I’ll write up article keeping in mind IT, ITES & BPO industry and applicability of Labor Laws to these organizations. We may not need expertise, however, it is imperative that we have a fair understanding of laws of the land to become all rounded HR Professionals. I keep meeting lot of senior HR Leaders and find that this is an area which is hitherto untouched. This primarily happens as in bigger companies due to scale they have specific role carved out for senior people whether it is Talent Acquisition, OD or Employment Engagement and leaders manning these role do not tend to venture out on their own to become all rounded HR Professional. I am also no exception, I am sure if I have had continued with GE for another 10 years, I may not have got the detailed learning's related to compliance framework and labor laws. Let me give you an example - Organizations deploy contract staff doing janitorial, security and routine maintenance work and other services, as an organization, it is imperative that we have a contract registration licence in place, how many of us as HR Leader know that and will bother to check whether the licence is in place or not? I am sure, not many. When you reach at a top HR position in your organization, then you do not have a choice and if you are already equipped, life become a bit easier.

In my next few posts, let me attempt to provide an overview of the key acts which are essential in nature-

· Companies Act 1956
· The Contract Labor (Regulation & Abolition) Act 1970
· The Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986
· The Minimum Wages Act 1948
· The Payment of Wages Act 1936
· The Equal remuneration Act 1976
· Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishment Act 1958
· Emp. Provident Fund and Misc. Provisions Act 1952
· The Payment of Bonus Act 1965
· Employees State Insurance Act 1948
· Maternity Benefit Act 1961
· Payment of Gratuity Act 1972

Watch out for the space!!!