HR & Labour Compliance

From first hire to full handbook, done right.

Policy handbooks, recruitment frameworks, statutory compliance, and compensation design — India-compliant templates founders can ship on Monday.

Labour Code 2026 ready — we’ve restructured 40+ CTCs post-AprilPOSH Act 2013 specialist — IC formations that pass High Court scrutinyDPDP 2023 baseline built into every policyKarnataka-first — we know your LWF, PT, and S&E Act coldPolicies legally reviewed, not downloaded

Labour Codes active since April 1, 2026. The 50% wage rule is retroactive. Every day your CTC structure stays non-compliant, your PF and Gratuity underpayment compounds. Section 14B damages + director personal liability are now real.

Why this matters

Most HR consultants can draft a policy. We draft policies that defend you.

We're not a SaaS tool.

Keka will calculate your PF. Zoho will run your payroll. Neither of them will tell you that your CTC structure violates the 50% wage rule, that your POSH IC is invalid because the external member isn't legally qualified, or that your non-compete clause is void under Section 27 of the Contract Act. Software executes. We architect.

We're not a top-tier law firm.

AZB, Nishith Desai, and Trilegal do brilliant HR work — at ₹3-15 lakh per engagement, with a 6-week slot queue and 12 billable hours of partner review you don't actually need. We deliver the same architectural quality at ₹20,000-₹1.25 lakh per engagement because we skip the law-firm overhead.

We're cost accountants who do HR.

Dr. Babu is a CMA with 25+ years in cost and finance. That matters for HR because the 2026 Labour Codes turned compensation design into a cost-accounting problem — PF impact, gratuity accrual, provisioning, margin bleed. We model the numbers, then we design the policy. Most HR consultants only do the second half.

The 4 HR packages

Pick your package.

Pick the package that matches your headcount and compliance stage. Every package includes a kickoff call with Dr. Babu, legal review of key documents, and a founder / HR-head walkthrough on delivery. Prices are ex-GST. Payment: 50% on kickoff, 50% on delivery.

👥HR Starter

From zero to legally compliant HR in 2 weeks.

The Day-1 HR foundation every startup should have before they hire their 10th employee — PF/ESI/PT setup, POSH policy, offer letter suite, and the compliance calendar that prevents future 14B damages.

Who this is for

  • Startups with 5-15 employees currently hiring informally
  • Founders who just received their first Labour Welfare Fund notice (LWF threshold dropped to 10 employees in 2025)
  • Companies about to cross the 10-employee POSH and ESI trigger
  • Anyone who’s been told by their investor “you need to formalise HR before our next round”

Deliverables

  • 1× PF / ESI / Karnataka PT / LWF Registration + First Filings
  • 1× POSH Policy Draft + Legal Review
  • 1× Offer & Appointment Letter Suite (2 template variants)
  • 1× Leave Policy
  • 1× 12-month Compliance Calendar
  • 1× Handover call (60 min)
2-3 weeks from kickoff.
Under the ESI Act, once you cross 10 employees and register, you’re “once-covered-always-covered” — even if your headcount drops below 10 later. Accidentally triggering it without a proper setup means years of reconciliation pain. The Karnataka LWF 2025 amendment dropped the applicability threshold from 50 → 10 employees. Almost every scaling Bengaluru startup is now in scope.
Book my HR Starter setupFree compliance check first

Payment: ₹12,500 on kickoff, ₹12,500 on delivery. Ongoing monthly compliance is sold separately (see HR Professional or standalone Monthly Retainer at ₹15,000/mo).

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📋HR Professional

POSH IC + Payroll system + 4 policy suites. For companies hiring past 15.

Once you cross 10 employees, POSH IC is mandatory. Once you cross 15, you need real payroll software and policy documents that your HR lead can actually enforce. This is that package.

Who this is for

  • Scaling startups with 15-50 employees
  • Companies mid-way through onboarding their first HR function
  • Founders who just learned their current POSH IC is technically invalid
  • Anyone paying their CA ₹2,000/month to “handle payroll” and realising it’s not actually compliant

Everything in HR Starter, plus:

  • 1× POSH Internal Complaints Committee (IC) Formation
  • 1× POSH Annual Awareness Training (1-hour live session)
  • 1× Payroll Run Setup (software + SOP)
  • 1× Leave + Travel + Expense Policy Pack (3 policies)
  • 1× Code of Conduct + IT / DPDP Policy
  • 1× Legal sign-off across all policy documents
4 weeks from kickoff.
A POSH IC without a legally qualified external member is not an IC — it’s a liability. If a complaint is raised and the IC is later invalidated in writ petitions (which is the #1 pattern in Indian High Court rulings on POSH since 2023), the employer is treated as having no IC at all — which triggers penalty under Section 26 up to ₹50,000 per violation and business-license review. Most Indian startup ICs fail this test.
Get my HR Pro kit in 4 weeksRequest sample IC formation docs

Payment: ₹25,000 on kickoff, ₹25,000 on delivery. External POSH IC member annual retainer is separate (typically ₹25,000-₹50,000/year, paid direct to the member — we facilitate, we don’t mark up). Payroll software subscription is separate (typically ₹3,000-₹6,000/month, paid direct to vendor).

⚖️HR Premium

Survive the 2026 Labour Codes: audit + CTC redesign + full policy manual.

For 50-150 employee companies where the April 2026 Labour Codes have broken your CTC structure, your policies are from 2021, and your HR head is drowning. This is the restructure package.

Who this is for

  • Growth-stage companies (50-150 employees) whose current CTCs violate the 50% wage rule
  • Companies whose policy manual hasn’t been updated since before DPDP 2023
  • HR heads who need a defensible, board-grade transformation plan — not more templates
  • Founders who’ve received a compliance notice (from PF, ESI, Inspector-cum-Facilitator)

Everything in HR Professional, plus:

  • 1× Labour Code Transition Audit (Full board-grade diagnostic)
  • 1× CTC Design under 50% Wage Rule (5 role bands restructured)
  • 1× HR Policy Manual (15-22 policies, legally reviewed)
  • 1× Employee Handbook (branded, custom)
  • 3-month Monthly Compliance Retainer
6-8 weeks for the transition audit + CTC redesign + policy manual; employee handbook 2 weeks after that; 3-month retainer runs in parallel.
The April 1, 2026 Labour Code transition window is closed. Non-compliance with the 50% wage rule is not an administrative error — it triggers retroactive PF and Gratuity liability, penal damages under Section 14B (5%-25% of arrears, capped at 100% of principal), 12% per annum interest under Section 7Q, and under the new IR Code, personal director liability. The Inspector-cum-Facilitator role was activated in Karnataka in Q1 2026. Improvement notices are being issued.
Book my Labour Code transition scanTalk to Dr. Babu

Payment: 3 milestones — ₹30,000 kickoff, ₹40,000 on transition audit + CTC design delivery, ₹30,000 on policy manual + handbook delivery. Retainer auto-converts to month-to-month at ₹15,000/month after the 3-month bundle unless cancelled in writing. External legal review costs are bundled; external POSH IC member retainer still separate.

🏛️HR Enterprise

Board-grade HR transformation: audit + ESOP + KRA/KPI + appraisal system.

For 100-500 employee mid-market companies where HR is now a board-level question. Full maturity audit, equity compensation architecture, performance management, and 6 months of compliance retainer — one engagement, one partner.

Who this is for

  • Mid-market companies (100-500 employees) preparing for Series-B+ funding or M&A due-diligence
  • Companies granting ESOPs for the first time (or cleaning up an ad-hoc grant list)
  • Boards that want a verifiable HR risk posture, not a “we’re working on it”
  • CHROs / HR heads who need external board-level rigour to unlock internal spend

Everything in HR Premium, plus:

  • 1× HR Process Audit (end-to-end, flagship diagnostic)
  • 1× ESOP Policy + Grant Letter Templates
  • 1× Variable Pay / Incentive Scheme Design
  • 1× KRA / KPI Framework (organisation-wide)
  • 1× Annual Appraisal System Setup
  • 6-month Monthly Compliance Retainer
12-16 weeks for the flagship deliverables + 6 months of retainer running in parallel.
Post-Series-B diligence now routinely includes HR diligence — ESOP compliance history (Cos Act + Ind AS 102), POSH IC validity, Labour Code readiness, performance management maturity. Companies that don’t have documented evidence across all four get either valuation haircuts or extended diligence periods (3-6 weeks added to close). The cost of delayed close typically exceeds ₹10L+ in opportunity cost and banker fees. This package is the insurance policy.
Book my Enterprise scoping callRequest sample HR Audit heatmap

Payment: 4 milestone-linked installments (kickoff, transition audit + CTC, policy + ESOP, performance + retainer end). Retainer auto-converts to month-to-month at ₹25,000/month after the 6-month bundle. ESOP external legal review + plan registration with registrar fees are bundled. Ind AS 102 fair-value valuation (if external valuer required for listed-readiness) is a pass-through cost.

Pricing & comparison

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FAQ

Questions, answered.

Probably yes. The POSH Act Section 4 mandate has three non-negotiables: the Presiding Officer must be a senior woman, the external member must have specific POSH / legal qualifications, and at least 50% of the IC must be women. Most Indian startup ICs fail on the external-member test — the “external member” is often a founder’s friend or a vendor. If your IC is later invalidated, you’re treated as having no IC at all, which triggers Section 26 penalty. We audit your IC free in the first 20-min call.

They can execute the computation. They can’t audit whether your CTC structure violates the 50% wage rule, redesign it legally, run the PF/Gratuity impact model, draft the employee communication, or defend you in an Inspector-cum-Facilitator visit. That’s architecture, not computation. Our HR packages do the architecture; SaaS or your CA can continue to execute.

The Inspector-cum-Facilitator role is already active in Karnataka. Improvement notices are being issued. Under the new IR Code, non-compliance triggers PF/Gratuity damages retroactively (back to April 1, 2026), 12% p.a. interest under Section 7Q, penal damages under Section 14B (5-25% of arrears, capped at 100% of principal), and personal director liability. This is the first Labour regime where directors are personally exposed. Ignoring it is not a viable strategy.

If your current policies pre-date November 2023 (DPDP Act), pre-date April 2026 (Labour Codes), or were downloaded from a template site, they almost certainly fail current compliance. We audit your existing policy library free in the scoping call and tell you exactly what’s at risk. If you’re clean, we’ll tell you — and we won’t sell you a package you don’t need.

Yes. We deliver pan-India digitally. Bengaluru is our physical base (Dr. Babu is on-site there). We’ve delivered HR transformations in Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Kochi. State-specific PT / LWF / S&E Act handling is built into every engagement.

Yes — CTC design is available as a standalone service at ₹45,000. But we’d strongly recommend the audit first. 7 out of 10 CTC redesign engagements surface a broader Labour Code compliance issue (wrong F&F settlement timelines, invalid fixed-term contracts, missing gratuity provisioning for FTE contracts) that a pure CTC project misses. The audit is insurance.

Yes — all prices ex-GST. 18% GST applies as per current rates. Invoicing by WABS Cost Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.

Kickoff call within 48 hours of signed engagement letter. Work begins once we receive the 50% kickoff payment and the data-request list is responded to.

Need a bank loan, a financial model, or a costing system too?

Most of our HR clients also need finance work — a DPR for an MSME loan, a CMA for working capital, a Startup CFO retainer, or a costing system that stops margin leaks. Costway serves both verticals as one firm, with one set of consistent numbers, one partner. Bundle discounts apply when you buy both.

See our Cost & Finance packages