Appointment Letters Are Now Mandatory in India. What Must Be In Yours

What does the law actually require?

Section 6 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 lists the duties of an employer. Clause (f) of sub-section (1) requires the employer to issue a letter of appointment to every employee on joining the establishment, in the form prescribed by the appropriate Government. The Code also contains a transitional proviso for employees already in service when it came into force, requiring letters to be issued to them within a short period, so existing staff are not exempt simply because they joined earlier.

Two words in the provision do a lot of work. 'Employee' is defined broadly in the Codes and is wider than 'worker', so the duty is not limited to shop-floor staff. 'Establishment' sets the boundary of coverage: the Code applies to establishments that meet its thresholds, generally ten or more workers, with separate thresholds for factories and certain other categories. A two-person consultancy may sit outside the Code, while a fifty-person software company will almost certainly be inside it.

Offer letter, appointment letter, employment agreement: what is the difference?

Indian practice uses these terms loosely, which is part of why the requirement catches organisations out. Many employers issue the first and the third and treat the second as covered. Under the OSH Code the appointment letter is a specific obligation, and 'we sent an offer letter' is not automatically the same answer.

Who it covers, and who it does not

The obligation is framed around employees of covered establishments rather than a narrow category such as permanent staff. The practical reading for most organisations is that it is not a senior-staff-only requirement. Fixed-term employees, probationers, trainees employed on a salary and part-time employees are all worth including.

That breadth is where the compliance gap usually sits. Organisations that issue careful paperwork for full-time salaried roles frequently run on informal arrangements for shift staff, drivers, housekeeping and similar engagements that they employ directly. Those engagements are within the requirement.

Two groups need separate treatment. Workers supplied through a contractor are usually employed by the contractor, so the contractor is the one that must issue the letter, though the principal employer should check that it has done so. Gig and platform workers are defined in the Code on Social Security, 2020 as working outside a traditional employer-employee relationship, so the appointment letter duty does not usually reach them, although aggregators have separate social security obligations.

Interns and apprentices need a separate look. Apprentices engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961 have their own contract requirements under that Act. Interns are sometimes employees and sometimes not, depending on whether they are paid wages and how the arrangement works in practice, so a short written letter setting out the terms is sensible either way.

What should be in your appointment letter?

The definitive list of particulars is set by rules, and those vary by appropriate Government. The Central Government notified final rules under the Codes in May 2026, and States have moved at different speeds, so the form for your establishment should be checked against the State's current notification rather than assumed from a national template.

Whatever the final form, a good appointment letter should leave no doubt about the following points. If yours omits several, ask for a revised version.

• Names of the employer and the employee, and the establishment's address.
• Designation, category of employment and a short description of duties.
• Date of joining, and for fixed-term employment, the end date of the term.
• Wage structure, showing basic pay, dearness allowance if any, each allowance and the employer's statutory contributions.
• Place of work, normal working hours, weekly off and overtime arrangements.
• Leave entitlement, probation period and the notice each side must give.
• Social security coverage such as provident fund, ESI where applicable and gratuity terms.

Red flags to look for when you receive one

An appointment letter is also the moment to check that the terms match what you were promised at the offer stage. These are the problems that come up most often.

• Pay shown only as a single CTC figure, with no breakup into basic pay, allowances and employer contributions.
• A designation or category different from the one in your offer, for example 'trainee' or 'consultant' instead of the role you applied for.
• A fixed-term end date you were never told about, or a term that rolls over automatically without a fresh letter.
• Notice, probation or bond terms that are longer or stricter than those in the offer letter.
• A clause saying the letter 'supersedes all prior communications', which can wipe out promises made in the offer or by email.
• References to repealed laws such as the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, which signal an out-of-date template.

Sample wording for the clauses that cause most disputes

Precise wording prevents arguments later. If your letter is vague on any of these points, you can propose language along these lines.

On wages: 'Your monthly wages are ₹45,000, made up of basic pay of ₹25,000, house rent allowance of ₹12,000 and special allowance of ₹8,000. The employer will contribute to provident fund and other statutory schemes in addition to these wages.' Setting out each component makes it far easier to check later calculations of gratuity, leave encashment and notice pay.

On notice: 'After confirmation, either party may end this employment by giving 30 days' written notice or wages in lieu of notice.' On fixed-term employment: 'Your employment is for a fixed term from 1 December 2026 to 30 November 2027. You are entitled to the same wages and benefits as permanent employees doing similar work, and to gratuity on a pro-rata basis as provided by law.' None of this is unusual, and an employer acting in good faith should not object to stating what was already agreed.

Why this matters beyond compliance

For employers, an undocumented engagement is a weak position in any dispute about what was agreed, quite apart from the statutory duty. It also surfaces in diligence: an acquirer or investor reviewing your people files will notice a workforce without appointment letters, and it becomes a schedule item at exactly the moment you least want one. Non-compliance with the Code's duties can also attract penalties, and the Codes allow some first-time contraventions to be compounded.

For employees, the appointment letter is the easiest evidence of your terms. Consider Ravi, a site supervisor hired in Hyderabad on a promise of ₹35,000 a month, 18 days' leave and a one-month notice period, all agreed on a phone call. When he resigns, the employer says his notice is three months and his salary was ₹30,000. Without an appointment letter he is left with payslips and memory. With one, the argument is over before it starts.

What if your employer has not given you one?

• Ask in writing, by email to HR, for a letter of appointment, mentioning that the OSH Code requires one.
• Meanwhile keep your offer letter, payslips, bank statements showing salary credits and any joining emails.
• Check your UAN passbook on the EPFO portal, which records your date of joining and contributions.
• If the employer refuses, note the refusal and take advice; labour authorities in your State handle complaints under the Code.
• Do not sign a back-dated letter with terms worse than those you actually agreed. Ask for corrections first.

If you are an employer with a gap

The practical sequence is to audit rather than redraft blindly. Establish which categories of your workforce have appointment letters and which do not, check the notified rules for the States you operate in, update one template per engagement type rather than forcing a single document to serve everyone, and issue to existing staff as well as new joiners. Fix the onboarding process too, so that a letter goes out automatically on each joining date and the gap does not reopen six months later.

Keep a signed or acknowledged copy for each employee, and keep the template version history. One template reviewed properly against the current rules is worth more than twenty contracts issued from a document nobody has read since 2024. Where the position for a particular category is genuinely unclear because State rules are still in draft, put it to an advocate rather than guessing.