Remote Hiring in India 2025: Drafting Compliant Employment Agreements under Revised Labour Laws

The Indian work has changed radically over the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic thrust the rise of remote work into overdrive, but it wasn’t so long ago that there were a lot of people working from home in a sort of legal limbo. With the dawn of 2025 and reforms related to Labour coming into play, the laws and regulations regarding remote hiring in India & Remote work have changed massively. 

For employers and HR professionals, that means employment agreements, particularly for remote workers, must be rethought and carefully written to maintain compliance.

In this blog, we will discuss the details of the legal help present in the remote hiring in India 2025 and the other legal systems present to help the employees. 

The New Legal System: Labour Codes 2025 and Remote Work Recognition

The new labour code has since reconsideration. These are discussed below.

Consolidation into Four Labour Codes

On 21 November 2025, the government of India introduced four all-encompassing labour codes which replace a list of previously existing laws, with there being 29 prior central laws. These include: the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.

This codification is intended to facilitate compliance with labour laws, rationalise the regulatory authorities and update the regulations to suit 21st-century conditions of work.

Through these reforms, new standards for jobs and employment modes that have formerly been cloaked in legal ambiguities, such as gig work, contract work and remote working.

Acknowledgement of Work-From-Anywhere / Flexible / Remote working Practices

One of the most notable of these, and one which just so happens to be most pertinent to remote hiring, is the formal recognition of flexible working practices such as remote work/work from home (WFH). The updated codes give legal recognition to ways of working that don’t fit with the old notion of simply needing to be present in an office.

This is a significant milestone: remote work is no longer an afterthought, a suspect convenience or a quote-unquote casual arrangement. It now has a statutory underpinning within India’s new labour law framework.

Labour Codes 2025 and Remote Work Recognition

Four broad-based labour codes consolidating 29 central laws, most of them from the British era, were in force across India as of 21 November 2025. They are the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.

This consolidation seeks to make compliance with labour law easier, reduce regulatory complexity and update regulations for the 21st-century workplace.

With these reforms, previously grey areas in terms of roles and employment models, such as gig work, contract work and remote work from other regions, are provided with a better legal definition.

Of most consequence (for remote hiring specifically, at least) is the shift in attitudes toward flexibility itself: whether that’s as a flexible schedule or 100% remote work (or somewhere along the spectrum). The new codes grant legal standing to forms of work that don’t follow the original office presence principle.

This is a big moment: remote work, old remote work is no longer a dodgy convenience or an unscheduled perk, it now has statutory backing in India’s new framework of the labour law.

Why Choose Us?

With statutory grounds being taken by working from home, organisations seeking to hire people remotely have some compliance boxes that they must check, particularly when drawing employment contracts or agreements.

We are the best lawyers in Delhi, and we have the best team to handle all these cases with care. So contact us and allow us to bring joy into your life.