Question 1

How many working hours are legal per week in India?

Accepted Answer

The general statutory ceiling is 48 hours per week and 9 hours per day. That limit comes from the Factories Act, 1948 for factories and from each state's Shops and Establishments Act for offices, IT companies and agencies — where daily limits are typically 8 to 9 hours. Work beyond the ceiling is overtime and must be paid at twice the ordinary rate.

Question 2

What is the maximum overtime allowed in India?

Accepted Answer

Overtime is capped by statute, not just priced. Under the Factories Act the total including overtime cannot exceed 60 hours in a week, and quarterly overtime limits — commonly 50 to 75 hours depending on state and sector — apply on top. All overtime must be paid at twice the ordinary rate of wages.

Question 3

Is a six-day working week legal in India?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Indian law requires at least one rest day in a week, not a five-day week. A six-day schedule is lawful provided weekly hours stay within the statutory ceiling — generally 48 — and every employee gets a weekly off, with substituted rest days where the off day is worked.

Question 4

Is compensatory off legally required in India?

Accepted Answer

Compensatory off as a company benefit is contractual, not statutory. But where an employee is made to work on their weekly holiday, the Factories Act and most state Shops and Establishments Acts do require a substituted holiday within a defined window — so a comp off in that specific situation is a legal obligation, not a courtesy.

Question 5

Can salary be deducted for late coming in India?

Accepted Answer

Only within limits. The Code on Wages, 2019 permits deductions for absence from duty, and it treats late arrival as absence only where the employee, though present, refuses to work. Deductions must be proportionate to the period of absence, and total deductions in a wage period cannot exceed 50% of wages. A flat penalty for lateness is a fine, which is separately regulated and mostly prohibited.

Question 6

Do I still need a muster roll if I use attendance software?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the obligation is to maintain the register, not to maintain it on paper. Indian labour rules increasingly permit registers to be kept electronically, so software satisfies the duty provided the record contains the prescribed particulars, can be produced on demand in the prescribed form, and is retained for the required period.

Question 7

How long must attendance records be kept in India?

Accepted Answer

Retention is set by the rule that prescribes each register, and commonly runs to three years from the last entry — with some registers and wage records required for longer. Because different Acts prescribe different periods, multi-state and contract-labour employers should retain to the longest applicable period rather than a single company-wide default.

Question 8

Does work from home count as attendance?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Attendance is a record of working time, not of physical presence at a premises. Remote working days are working days and must appear in the attendance register with their hours, and the same overtime, rest-interval and record-keeping rules apply to them.

Question 9

Is biometric attendance mandatory in India?

Accepted Answer

No. No Indian labour law requires biometric attendance for private employers. The obligation is to maintain an accurate attendance register; the method is the employer's choice. Choosing biometrics adds obligations rather than removing them, because biometric identifiers are sensitive personal data under the DPDP Act framework.

Question 10

Is employee time tracking legal in India?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Recording working hours is not merely permitted, it is required — attendance and working-time registers are a statutory obligation. What is constrained is how much personal data the tracking collects: the DPDP Act, 2023 requires that processing be limited to what the purpose needs.

Question 11

Is screenshot monitoring legal under the DPDP Act?

Accepted Answer

The DPDP Act, 2023 does not ban screenshot monitoring outright, but it makes it hard to justify. Processing must be limited to what a specified lawful purpose requires, and screen contents capture far more personal data — including third parties' — than attendance, billing or productivity measurement needs.

Question 12

Can an employer track my location in India?

Accepted Answer

For genuinely field-based roles, location capture tied to a specific purpose can be justified with proper notice. Continuous tracking of desk-based employees, or tracking outside working hours, is very hard to justify under the DPDP Act's necessity and purpose-limitation requirements.

Question 13

Is attendance data personal data under the DPDP Act?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Attendance records identify a named individual and describe their activity, which makes them personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The employer is the data fiduciary, and the notice, purpose-limitation, storage-limitation and security obligations all apply.

Question 14

Can attendance data be used in a termination?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it frequently is — absenteeism is a recognised ground for disciplinary action. But the data has to survive scrutiny: accurate records, a fair process with notice and an opportunity to explain, and consistent application. Attendance data that the employee never saw or could not correct is weak evidence.

Question 15

What counts as billable time?

Accepted Answer

Billable time is whatever the engagement contract says it is. In practice that means client-facing and delivery work explicitly within scope, usually including meetings the contract covers, and usually excluding internal admin, business development and rework caused by the vendor's own error.

Question 16

How do I prove hours to a client in a billing dispute?

Accepted Answer

With contemporaneous records: time logged as the work happened, attributed to a named person and deliverable, and approved internally close to the event. Reconstructed timesheets and round-number entries are what lose disputes — not because they are dishonest, but because they cannot be corroborated.

Question 17

What counts as working time for remote teams?

Accepted Answer

Time during which the employee is working or at the employer's disposal counts, wherever they are. Statutory rest intervals are excluded; short incidental breaks are generally included. Being contactable outside agreed hours is a grey area in India and one worth settling in policy rather than leaving to assumption.

Question 18

Who can inspect attendance records in India?

Accepted Answer

Labour inspectors appointed under the applicable Act — factory inspectors, shops and establishments inspectors, and inspecting officers under contract labour and wage legislation — can require production of registers. Employees also have rights over their own records, and clients may have contractual audit rights.

Question 19

Are attendance registers different for contract workers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Contract labour brings its own register set under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and its rules — including the Form 25 muster roll — maintained by the contractor, with the principal employer carrying oversight duties and residual liability.

Attendance questions, answered with the statute attached.

Working time

Pay & deductions

Records & inspection

Privacy & monitoring

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