The Coronavirus pandemic impacted businesses and employees globally. However, India’s GST collection for the month of October was 1.05 lakh crore rupees, a favourable statistic for the country’s businesses. Post the lockdowns and restrictions, India seems to be back on track in terms of reviving the economy. Apart from the manufacturing sector, the e-commerce sector and cloud-based organizations performed well during this period.  The e-commerce sector in particular in the month of September was predicted to cross USD 38 billion in gross merchandise value.

An integral part of running these businesses is compliance.

Compliance refers to adherence to standards or regulations that organizations operate under. These regulations are passed by governing or regulatory bodies to ensure fairness in treatment of employees in the workplace as well as fairness in business. HR compliance services can help organizations in this area

HR Compliance Services

Staying complaint is a labor and cost intensive process. Certain organizations do handle compliance in house but in other cases, HR compliance services, third party concerns that work closely with organizations to monitor their activities and ensure that compliance is maintained in an organization on all fronts are used

The three compliance types that HR compliance services cover are:

Regulatory Compliance:

Abiding by rules as stated by a regulatory body that is under the purview and control of a state or central government.

Statutory Compliance:

Abiding with laws passed with a local, state, or central government. Practices that are taken up by employees and the management of those practices by higher-ups are called statutory compliance management.

Legal Compliance:

Abiding with all laws that are concerned with the business processes and activities carried out within an organization.

In any organization, there are various statutory compliances that managers must follow for the sake of the well-being of their employees. Here is a list of statutory compliances for HR managers.

• The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923
• The Trade Unions Act, 1926
• The Payment Of Wages Act, 1936
• The Industrial Disputes Act, 1946
• The Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act, 1946
• The Factories Act, 1948
• The Minimum Wages Act, 1948
• The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948
• The Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952
• The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959
• The Apprentices Act, 1961
• The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
• The Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970
• The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
• Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment & conditions Of Service) Act, 1979
• The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation Act), 1986

These laws and acts are crucial elements to maintaining statutory compliance in HR and ensuring a fair and safe workplace. Non adherence to these laws and regulations can incur fines or penalties and a general lack of goodwill among clients and shareholders in an organization.

Epfo And The Post Pandemic Situation

The Employees provident fund is an innovative initiative by the central government for salaried persons where it covers pension schemes and insurances for salaried personnel.

An interesting statistic as reported by the EPFO stated that enrolments rose to 8.45 lakh in July from 4.82 lakh in June 2020. This came on the back of two crucial aspects namely a delayed filing or returns and a possible rapid recovery in the creation of formal jobs. This was evident with industrial activity slowly picking up pace post the lockdown period.

Other Key Epfo Takeaways

• The net enrolments with the (EPFO) had dropped to 5.72 lakh in March 2020 from 10.21 lakh in February.
• New subscribers added to EPFO in 2019-20 stood at 78.58 lakh as compared with 12 lakh in the preceding fiscal.

Judging by the increased economic activity post the lockdown period and activity in various sectors, economic activity is picking up much more, indicative of more opportunities.