Offrd Times · Thursday, 21 May 2026

In this edition Delhi High Court says piece rate workers can still count as employees · Maharashtra court denies bail to TCS official and POSH panel member · 4 more items below.

Compliance

Delhi High Court says piece rate workers can still count as employees

HR Katha · Reported 5:45 pm IST

The Delhi High Court has held that workers paid by the piece can still count as employees under labour law, where the employer controls and supervises how the work is done. In a 14 May order, the court told a garment maker to pay 1.25 lakh rupees to a tailor whose service ended in 1999. How a person is paid does not settle their status, the court said. SME read, small workshops that rely on piece rate hands may carry PF and gratuity duties they assumed they had sidestepped.

Read in full at HR Katha →

Bhupendra Chaudhary takes charge as Uttar Pradesh MSME minister

Uttar Pradesh has handed its MSME ministry to Bhupendra Chaudhary, a senior BJP leader and former state party chief. The state runs one of India's largest small enterprise bases, from Moradabad brassware and Bhadohi carpets to Kanpur leather and Noida electronics. SMEStreet frames the appointment as a signal that the state wants firmer execution on credit access, delayed payments and exports. SME read, owners in UP clusters will watch for what changes, if anything, in grievance handling and ease of doing business.

SMEStreet · 7:25 pm

Opinion

Pay protests grow in Noida and Gurugram clusters as take home shrinks

In an opinion piece for SMEStreet, Gaurav Bhagat argues that worker walkouts at clusters in Noida, Gurugram, Manesar and Faridabad trace back to confusion, not just pay. As firms restructure salaries under the new wage rules, many workers see cost to company hold steady while take home falls, with little word on variable pay. The gap is one of communication, he says. Plain talk on revised payslips, led by managers, would defuse much of it. SME read, explain the change before the slip lands.

SMEStreet · 5:12 pm

Hiring

White collar hiring rose 6% in April, tier 2 cities stayed firm

White collar hiring in India rose 6 percent year on year in April, the Naukri JobSpeak Index showed. Insurance led at 21 percent, with BPO and ITES, real estate and healthcare close behind, while telecom and banking kept sliding and IT stayed flat. Tier 2 cities held up well, Jaipur up 12 percent, Coimbatore 11, Ahmedabad 7. SME read, demand is real but choosy, and smaller employers outside the metros may find the climate kinder than the headline suggests.

Business Standard · 6:14 pm