Establishment registration
Shops and Establishments registration, amendment on relocation or change of employer name, and renewal. Multi-state establishment setup, sequenced ahead of the first payroll run at a new location.
Section 07 · The firm
A compliance practice, staffed for counters rather than conference rooms
Stateman has advised employers on labour-law and statutory compliance from New Delhi since 2015. We are approximately 140 people, and about half of them are field personnel who know which counter to stand at, which officer holds which file, and what a district office will accept on a Friday afternoon.
What the practice consists of
The work is largely recurring and largely unglamorous. Registrations under the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954 and their amendment on relocation. Principal employer registration and contractor licensing under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, and the renewals that follow. Coverage disputes and Section 7A proceedings before the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation. Delhi's twice-yearly variable dearness allowance revision and the arrears it generates. Registers of workmen in Form XIII that must agree with the muster roll rather than merely exist. Labour Welfare Fund remittances, professional tax where the state levies it, and filings through the Shram Suvidha portal.
Alongside that sits the advisory work that arrives without notice: an inspection report, a show-cause notice, a POSH complaint on a committee that turns out never to have had an external member, a demand for arrears computed from an effective date the payroll team had not seen.
How we are organised
The practice runs on three groups. The advisory group reads files, drafts replies and takes positions. The field group — the larger of the three — carries documents to the Labour Department, the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner's office at Bhikaji Cama Place, the ESIC regional and branch offices, and the district offices across the NCR, and returns with acknowledgements rather than assurances. The calendar group maintains, for each client, the schedule of registration numbers, expiry dates, issuing offices and named custodians described in the calendar section of this library.
Each engagement has a named consultant and a named field officer. Both attend inspections. We regard sending a file ahead and awaiting the outcome as an abdication rather than a service, and we have said so to clients who expected the cheaper arrangement.
What we do not do
We do not write business strategy, design organisation structures or advise on remuneration policy. We do not represent employers in criminal prosecutions; where a matter proceeds to trial the file passes to counsel and our role becomes preparation of the record. We do not promise that an inspection will never come, and we would treat any adviser who did with some suspicion.
We also decline instructions that require a document to be created bearing a date on which it did not exist. This arises more often than it should — most commonly in POSH remediation, where the temptation to reconstruct committee minutes is considerable. Our position is that a curable default handled prospectively is a smaller problem than a document that cannot be defended.
Areas of practice
Contract labour
Principal employer registration in Form I, Form V certification, contractor licensing in Form IV, licence renewals and amendments, and periodic reconciliation of vendors against the certificate.
Social security
EPF and ESI registration, coverage determination, Section 7A representation, damages under Section 14B, and reconciliation of contributions against the wage register at year end.
POSH
Internal Committee constitution and reconstitution, external member engagement, member orientation, workshops in Hindi and English, and the Section 21 annual report to the District Officer.
Wages and benefits
Minimum wage and VDA revision tracking with arrear computation, bonus under the 1965 Act, gratuity, and maternity benefit compliance.
Registers and returns
Upkeep of Forms XIII, XVI and XVII, annual return in Form XXV, half-yearly return in Form XXIV, Factories Act Form 21, and Shram Suvidha filings.
Inspections and notices
Attendance at inspections, visit-book discipline, replies to show-cause notices, and preparation of the record where a matter proceeds to prosecution.
Diligence and audit
Vendor and contractor compliance audits, and employment due diligence for share and asset transactions, including quantification of accrued statutory exposure.
Recruitment
We recruit for compliance executives, senior consultants on contract labour and licensing, POSH advisers and trainers, and field liaison officers for Delhi NCR. The field roles involve two or more days each week at labour, EPFO and ESIC offices rather than at a desk; the advisory roles are client-facing from the first week. There are no sales targets in any of them. Applications may be sent to careers@stateman.net with a short note on the statutes you have actually handled.
We do not promise an inspection will never come.
What we undertake is that when it does, the registers, returns and licences are current, and somebody who has read the file is sitting next to you.