Employment Law - Key Information every HR and Business Leader should know

 

The Ministry of Commerce & Industry’s Department of Commerce has substituted rule 43A of Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006 by notifying the Special Economic Zones (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2022. The substituted rule 43A eliminates the requirement for IT/ITeS entities operating from Special Economic Zones to obtain permission from the Development Commissioner for allowing work from home to the employees.

The substituted rule 43A also simplifies the regulatory requirements for implementing the WFH arrangement and does away with the limit with respect to the proportion of employees of SEZ units1 who can be allowed to WFH.

The key features of new rule 43A, inter alia, includes:

• the facility for WFH or from any place outside the SEZ may cover all the employees of the SEZ unit.
• where the SEZ unit permits its employees to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ, it shall intimate the same to the DC through an email on or before the date on which the facility to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ is permitted.
• where the SEZ unit has permitted its employees to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ, before the date of commencement7 of the SEZ Fifth Amendment and permits its employees to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ under rule 43A, it shall intimate the same to the DC through an email by January 31, 2023.
• the SEZ unit shall not be required to submit the lists of employees who are allowed to follow WFH or from any place outside the SEZ, but shall maintain in the unit the lists of employees who had been permitted to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ and shall be submitted for verification whenever is required by the DC.
• the facility to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ shall be admissible if the SEZ unit continues to operate from the premises as per its Letter of Approval.
• the work to be performed by the employee permitted to WFH under rule 43A shall be as per the services approved for the SEZ unit, and the work should be related to a project of the SEZ unit.
• the SEZ unit shall ensure export revenue of the resultant products or services to be accounted for by the SEZ unit to which the employee is tagged.
• where an employee ceases to be part of the project of the SEZ unit, the employee shall be un-tagged from the SEZ unit and the SEZ unit shall surrender the identity card as per the SEZ Rules.
• the SEZ unit may provide to an employee duty-free goods, including laptop, desktop, and other electronic equipment needed by the employee to WFH or from any place outside the SEZ and the same shall be allowed to be taken outside the SEZ without payment of duty or integrated goods and services tax on a temporary basis. The SEZ unit while opting for the facility of WFH or from any place outside the SEZ shall ensure that such duty-free goods are duly accounted for in the appropriate records as per the extant rules and are available for verification, if necessary.
• the temporary removal of such duty-free goods shall be allowed for a period commensurate with the validity of the facility for WFH or anywhere outside the SEZ. If the SEZ unit fails to bring back the duty-free goods into the SEZ within the specified period, the duty applicable to such goods shall be paid by the SEZ unit.
• the permission granted to WFH or from anywhere outside the SEZ shall be applicable up to December 31, 2023.