Indian employment law splits sharply into two regimes, and which one you fall into decides almost everything about your remedy.
The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 was repealed by Section 104 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 when the four labour codes were brought into force, with central rules following on 30 December 2025. Most of the substance carried across, but the section numbers did not, and the operative word is now "worker" rather than "workman".
The threshold question: are you a worker
Under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, a "worker" means a person employed in any industry to do manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward. Excluded are those employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity, and those in a supervisory capacity drawing wages exceeding Rs 18,000 a month, or such other amount as the Central Government notifies. The old Act put that supervisory threshold at Rs 10,000, so the band of protected supervisors is wider now than it was.
The label in your appointment letter does not decide it. Courts look at the actual nature of the duties: whether you hire, fire, sanction leave, appraise subordinates, or bind the company. A "Manager" with none of those powers has repeatedly been held to be within the definition.
The threshold question decides your remedy, so answer it first
- Mainly manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work? You are likely a worker under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, and the Code's protections on notice, compensation and enquiry apply.
- Mainly managerial or administrative? You fall outside, and your remedy is contractual, before a civil court.
- Supervisory, but drawing wages above the threshold the Code fixes? You fall outside on that ground, and the wage figure is the operative fact.
- Multifarious duties? The dominant nature of the work decides it, not the designation on the letter. This is settled by a long line of authority.
- Terminated for a reason the law forbids regardless of status, such as a POSH complaint or maternity, and a separate statutory remedy is open to you either way.
If you are a worker
- Retrenchment requires compliance with Section 70 of the Code, the old Section 25F: one month's notice or wages in lieu, compensation of 15 days' average pay for every completed year of continuous service, and notice to the appropriate Government, for employees with at least one year of continuous service. Non-compliance makes the termination invalid.
- Section 71, the old Section 25G, requires "last in, first out" within a category, absent recorded reasons. Section 72, the old Section 25H, gives you preference in re-employment if the employer hires again within a year.
- Termination for misconduct requires a charge sheet, a fair domestic enquiry with an opportunity to defend and cross-examine, and a proportionate punishment.
- The remedy is to raise an industrial dispute through conciliation under Section 53 and, on failure, adjudication by the Industrial Tribunal, which can order reinstatement with back wages. The Code replaced the separate Labour Court tier with Industrial Tribunals, and matters pending under the old Act stand transferred.
Under the repealed Section 2A(3) you had three years to move the labour court. Under the Code, the proviso to Section 53(1) bars conciliation proceedings more than two years after the dispute arose, and Section 53(6) allows only 90 days from receipt of the conciliation officer's failure report to apply to the tribunal. Do not plan around the old three-year figure.
Managerial employees are governed by contract. Indian courts will generally not order specific performance of a contract of personal service, so reinstatement is rarely available. The remedy is damages, typically limited to salary for the notice period, plus unpaid dues. This is why senior employees usually negotiate an exit rather than litigate.
Where termination is unlawful regardless of status
- Termination during maternity leave, prohibited by the maternity benefit chapter of the Code on Social Security, 2020, which replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
- Termination as retaliation for a POSH complaint
- Dismissal by way of victimisation, an unfair labour practice listed in the Second Schedule to the Industrial Relations Code and prohibited by Section 84
- Termination that is discriminatory on a constitutionally protected ground, in public employment
- Termination in breach of a standing order in an establishment covered by Chapter IV of the Industrial Relations Code, which applies to industrial establishments with 300 or more workers
If you worked in a shop, office or commercial establishment in Karnataka, do not stop at the Code. The Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1961 survives the labour codes, and Section 39 of it says that no employer shall remove or dismiss an employee with at least six months of continuous service except for reasonable cause and without one month's notice or pay in lieu, unless misconduct has been brought on record with proof at an enquiry held for the purpose. A dismissed employee has a right of appeal to the prescribed authority on the ground that there was no reasonable cause, or that he was not guilty of the misconduct found. Where the employer will not reinstate, the appellate authority can award compensation, capped at one month's pay for every year of service, and a person aggrieved by that order may apply to the District Judge for revision. This is the working remedy for most Bengaluru white collar terminations, because it does not turn on the "worker" argument at all.
Two cautions on that route. Once compensation has been awarded under Section 39, the same claim cannot be taken to a civil suit as well, so choose the forum deliberately rather than filing everywhere. And the appeal has to be filed within the period the Karnataka rules prescribe, which is short; check it the week you are dismissed rather than the month after. Section 39 also preserves anything better you have elsewhere, so a longer notice period in your contract or an award is not displaced by the one month figure.
What to gather before you go anywhere
The file wins these cases. Assemble the appointment letter and every revision, the job description and any document showing what you actually did day to day, appraisal records, the termination letter or email, the last six payslips, the attendance or leave record, and the full email trail around the exit. If the ground alleged is misconduct, ask in writing for the charge sheet, the enquiry report and the material relied on; a domestic enquiry conducted without a charge sheet, without an opportunity to cross examine, or with the same person as complainant and enquiry officer, is vulnerable on that ground alone. Where the stated reason is that you took outside work, read our note on moonlighting and dual employment in India before you reply, because the answer differs sharply depending on whether the work was during or after the employment.
The commonest way a good claim is lost is the "resign and we will give you a clean relieving letter" conversation. A resignation on your own initiative removes the termination that every remedy above is built on. If you are pushed, put the position in writing the same day: that you are being asked to resign, that you do not accept the allegations, and that you are signing under protest if you sign at all. Similarly, read any full and final settlement or release before you sign it, because a general release can be pleaded against the very claim you intend to bring.
Act promptly. The limitation position under the Code is tighter than the one most online material still describes, and long delay weakens a reinstatement claim considerably. Read your contract alongside the statute, because the notice, set-off and confidentiality clauses shape what you can be made to give up on the way out: our guide on what an Indian employment agreement should contain covers the clauses that matter, and our note on wrongful termination and employee rights in India sets out the remedies in sequence.