There is hardly any difference between HR policies of factory and that of its Corporate Office. If at all there is any difference it will be n the registration part, say, factory will come under Factories Act and is registered under Factories Act and will follow the provisions relating too health, safety, welfare of employees as provided under Factories Act whereas the HO will be registered under the State Shops and Commercial Establishments Act and will follow the provisions relating to health, safety, welfare etc as provided in that Act. There is no much difference in these provisions also. There may be difference with regard to leaves, working hours or similar minor things, but both are Acts to take care of health, safety and welfare of persons employed.
With regard to payment of minimum wages, both factories and HO come under the same Act and should follow the notifications of minimum wages. Both workers in factories and HO are eligible for bonus, maternity benefits, gratuity, PF, ESI etc. Employees of both are given protection under Industrial Disputes Act. Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act which was earlier applicable to factory workers only has been extended to employees in the HO also in many states. Both employees in factories and HO have equal right to take membership in Trade Union. The procedure that the management should follow inorder to take disciplinary action should be the same for workers in factory and HO.
In practice, what is confusing is that we generally believe that factory people are unionised whereas the people sitting in the Corporate Office cannot form or take membership in the Union. This is not true. The scope of all Labour Laws is same for all people. There can be exception like supervisors and managerial persons do not come under Industrial Disputes Act, and while reading this, we should say that managerial persons at Factory are also out of scope of ID Act. That means there can be different HR Policy for workmen category of employees and managerial category of employees but we cannot have policy for HO people and factory people. Of course, depending upon the nature of work there can be different conditions of service, say, plant workers shall work in shifts and in some department the work cannot be stopped through out the year and employees of that department, emergency department, may not be given the holidays as per schedule, HO people shall work for 5 days a week with daily spreadover of 9 hours etc.
In practical, therefore, we will have Standing Orders for workers/ employees who are not having supervisory or managerial authority and Service Manual/ HR manual for those who come under Managerial category. The former is a legal requirement whereas the latter is not mandatory. But instead of writing everything in the appointment order/ contract of employment with a manager, if we have a Service Manual for Managers, we can just say that the 'other terms and conditions of service will be as per Service Manual'.
Madhu.T.K