Do I need a written employment agreement before my first hire in Pune? Yes, and the reason is as local as it is legal. The day someone joins, your establishment record, your provident fund file with one of the four EPFO regional offices across Pune and your monthly profession tax deduction all start running off the terms you agreed. We draft the agreement for ₹1,999 and the first version reaches you in 1 to 2 days.
What has to be settled before we draft?
Almost every delay on this service comes from a decision the employer has not taken yet, not from the drafting itself. Five answers make the document straightforward.
- Is this person an employee or a consultant on a services contract? That single answer moves the deduction, the provident fund position and the exit terms.
- Which address does the person report to, and can you move them from a Hinjawadi seat to another Pune site without issuing a fresh letter?
- What is the salary structure, and which deductions come off it every month before the money reaches the bank account?
- How long is probation, what notice runs during it, and what notice runs after the person is confirmed?
- Who owns the code, drawings, decks and client accounts the person produces on your time and on your equipment?
A founder who settles those on one call gets a clean draft the same week. A founder who leaves the consultant question open gets a document that falls apart at the first payroll review.
Who in Pune actually needs one, and who does not?
- A SaaS product founder in Hinjawadi hiring engineers, where the work product clause carries most of the value and the notice period decides how a resignation lands mid sprint.
- A corporate services office on leased premises in Kharadi, taking on a floor of people at once and needing one base document that holds for all of them.
Not everyone on your premises is your employee, and the honest answer sometimes is that you need something else. A Chakan unit that takes workmen through a contractor is dealing with a principal employer registration under the Contract Labour Act, not with employment agreements for those workmen. A single director company in Kothrud with nobody on payroll needs no employment agreement at all, and nobody should sell it one. The clause law behind all of this sits in the national employment agreement guide; this page stays on what changes because the employer is in Pune.
Does your Pune address change who you answer to?
It changes some things, and not the ones people expect. Kharadi and Koregaon Park sit inside Pune Municipal Corporation limits. Wakad and Bhosari sit inside Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. A Camp premises is cantonment territory served by its own board, and we confirm the body from the address. Hinjawadi and Chakan are MIDC notified industrial areas, carried in neither corporation's published area list.
That civic body decides your trade licence and your property tax. It does not decide your employment paperwork. The establishment record under the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act 2017 is filed online to the Facilitator of the local area under the state Labour Department. First appeal from there lies with the district Government Labour Officer, and that route reads the same at every one of those addresses. Headcount, not address, decides what you file. Maharashtra raised the Shops Act registration threshold to twenty workers with effect from 1 October 2025, and below that an establishment files an intimation instead of taking a registration certificate. That change arrived by ordinance, so we confirm the position that applies on the day we file for you rather than assuming it.
What must the agreement carry, and what does it cost?
Drafting is ₹1,999, the first draft reaches you in 1 to 2 days, and one revision round is inside that fee. This is the checklist we work through for a Pune employer.
| Clause | What it has to settle for a Pune employer |
|---|---|
| Place of work and transfer | The site the person reports to, and whether you can move them between your Pune offices without a fresh letter |
| Salary and monthly deductions | Gross pay against every line taken out of it, including the profession tax the employer deducts under its PTRC |
| Statutory benefits | Provident fund, state insurance, gratuity and leave, written to match the establishment record instead of left vague |
| Confidentiality and work product | Who owns code, drawings, client lists and accounts created during the employment |
| Probation, notice and exit | Probation length, notice on each side, garden leave and the full and final settlement window |
| Governing law and forum | Maharashtra law, with a dispute going to the courts at Pune |
On Maharashtra payroll that deduction is ₹200 a month with ₹300 in February, ₹2,500 across the year. Women earning up to ₹25,000 a month have been exempt from it since 1 April 2023, so the salary clause names the applicable slab rather than a flat figure for everybody.
How we draft and deliver it
- We take the role, the reporting site, the pay structure and your headcount on a call that usually runs about twenty minutes.
- We check what your numbers actually trigger, provident fund at twenty employees and state insurance at ten or more persons, so the benefits clause is written rather than borrowed.
- A CA or CS drafts the agreement for the role, with the confidentiality and work product wording set to what that team really handles.
- You mark up the draft and we return the revised version, most often on notice period, garden leave and the confidentiality reach.
- We confirm what duty the instrument attracts and how it is paid, then hand over signature ready copies for both sides.
What does execution need, and when is the agreement redone?
The agreement is a contract between two parties, not an application to a counter, so nothing about it queues at an office. What it does need is correct stamping. Stamp duty in Maharashtra depends on the instrument and its value, the rate schedule under the Maharashtra Stamp Act 1958 was amended as recently as 2025, and duty is paid electronically through GRAS or by the e-SBTR route. We compute the figure for your document before execution rather than quoting one now.
The lease behind that address is a separate instrument on its own track. A leave and licence agreement in Maharashtra is compulsorily registrable under section 55 of the Rent Control Act, so a Kharadi office on leased premises has that registration to think about quite apart from its hiring paperwork.
Redo the agreement when the facts move, not on a calendar. A promotion, a salary revision, a move of reporting site, or a shift from consultant to employee each deserve a fresh signature on fresh terms. Commencement of the four labour codes came on 21 November 2025, and through 2026 the state was still framing its own rules under them at draft stage. We follow that gap and update the wording we issue as it closes.
Who drafts your employment agreement, and from where?
Our desk is at Yashwant Nagar, Near Bharatiya Samajseva, Yerwada, Pune 411006, and a CA and CS team carries the engagement from there without you leaving your office. The step that decides whether this document holds is not the drafting. It is the call on employee against consultant, and on who owns the work, taken before a clause is written. Jurisdiction always follows your own registered address and never ours, which is why we ask for it before we advise on anything. The fee is fixed at ₹1,999 with the revision round inside it, and you can ask for a callback within 30 minutes rather than filling a form. More than 15,000 businesses have used LegalX India, and the Pune desk sees founders hiring their first five people as often as offices adding a floor.