Title inflation is ordinary in Indian offices. Employers hand out "Manager", "Lead" and "Head of" for retention and for client-facing credibility, and then rely on the same words to argue that the person is outside the statute. The argument fails more often than employers expect, and the reason lies in the wording of the exclusion itself.
Read the exclusion, not the letterhead
The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 does not exclude "managers". It excludes a person employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity. That is a description of what the person is employed to do. A separate limb excludes a person employed in a supervisory capacity drawing wages exceeding eighteen thousand rupees a month, or such other amount as the Central Government notifies, which is a reminder that supervisory work is inside the definition of worker until the wage cap is crossed. Neither limb mentions designation. Our note on whether you count as a worker under the Industrial Relations Code goes through the categories that come up in practice.
Where duties are mixed, Indian industrial adjudication asks what the principal or dominant part of the work is, and treats the rest as incidental. Someone who spends the week doing technical or clerical work and half a day approving timesheets is not thereby employed mainly in a managerial capacity. The enquiry is factual, it is decided on evidence, and the employer carries the burden when it sets up the exclusion as a defence.
The facts that actually move the needle
The questions below decide most of these disputes. They are worth answering honestly before you build a case on the answer.
| Points towards worker | Points towards managerial or administrative |
|---|---|
| No power to appoint, dismiss or take disciplinary action | Authority to hire, fire or initiate discipline |
| Leave requests forwarded upward for approval | Final sanction of leave for a team |
| Appraisal input only, with ratings decided above you | Ratings and increments decided by you |
| No authority to commit the employer to a contract or a spend | Signing authority, budget ownership, delegation matrix entry |
| Output measured in tasks, tickets, code, drawings or accounts | Output measured in team results and policy |
| Same work as the people you notionally "lead" | Work that is distinct from and supervisory of the team |
What this does not do for you
Two honest limits. First, the label cuts both ways. If you genuinely hire, fire, set budgets and bind the company, calling yourself an engineer will not bring you inside the definition. Second, winning the status argument only opens the door; you still have to show that the termination was bad on its own facts, and the tribunal will look at notice, compensation, the order of retrenchment and, if misconduct is alleged, the fairness of the enquiry.
Employees in Bengaluru often plan to fall back on Section 39 of the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961, which gives an appeal against removal or dismissal without reasonable cause. That Act has an exemption clause of its own, and it says that nothing in the Act applies to persons occupying positions of management in any establishment. So the same factual enquiry into what you really did decides both routes. It is not a fallback that escapes the question.
How to build the record
- Get the job description as issued, not as re-drafted after the exit. If HR will not give it, ask for it in writing so the refusal is on record.
- Print the organisation chart for the period in question, and note whether anyone reported to you on paper.
- Pull the approval matrix or delegation of authority. If your name does not appear as an approver for spend, hiring or leave, that single document does a great deal of work.
- Take a representative fortnight of your own calendar and email and reduce it to a table of what you did and how long it took. Tribunals respond to this far better than to adjectives.
- Keep your appraisal forms, particularly the goals section, which usually describes the work in the employer's own words.
Before it becomes a dispute
If you are being offered a promotion that is only a title, understand what it may cost. A move from "Senior Engineer" to "Engineering Manager" with no change in duties changes nothing in law, but it hands the employer a talking point and it can lift you over the supervisory wage cap if your work is genuinely supervisory. It is reasonable to ask that the appointment letter describe the duties accurately, and to keep the version that does. Our guide on what an Indian employment agreement should contain covers what the letter should say and which clauses are worth negotiating while you still have leverage.
For the wider picture of what changed when the codes replaced the older statutes, and why the vocabulary in your old appointment letter no longer matches the statute book, see our overview of what the four labour codes changed for employees.