6 Appointment Letter Formats You Can Copy

Plenty of Indian employers send an offer letter and stop there. The appointment letter, the one that actually sets the terms of employment, never gets written.

That worked while nobody was checking. It stopped working on 21 November 2025, when the four labour codes took effect and the appointment letter became something every worker is entitled to receive.

This guide covers what the letter has to carry, six versions of the appointment letter format for the situations employers actually hire into, and the clauses that cause trouble later.

Why the Appointment Letter Is Now Compulsory

Start with what changed, because it is the reason this document can no longer be skipped.

The four labour codes were made effective from 21 November 2025, rationalising 29 existing labour laws. The before-and-after comparison issued with them is blunt about this one: before the reforms, no mandatory appointment letters; after them, mandatory appointment letters to all workers.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment’s factsheet on the OSH Code puts it plainly: every employee will be given an appointment letter in a prescribed format, specifying the details of the employee, the designation, the category, the details of wages and the details of social security.

The Ministry’s own FAQ on the Code adds the part employers miss. The Code covers all employees including fixed-term employment workers, and they get the same benefits, appointment letters among them. A six-month contract hire is not outside this.

The same FAQ is careful about one more thing. Labour sits on the concurrent list, so states make rules within their allocated sphere. The requirement itself is national, but the prescribed format can carry state-specific detail, so check your own state’s rules before you finalise a template.

One question the Ministry’s material does not settle: whether a very small employer is caught. The appointment-letter statements are made without a headcount. Separately, the FAQ puts the Code’s health, safety and welfare provisions at establishments with ten or more employees. Which threshold governs the letter is not stated, so a business under ten should confirm its own position rather than assume either way.

Compare that with what the state Acts have historically asked for. Section 17 of the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act, 2017 requires an employer to furnish every worker an identity card carrying the name, age, date of joining, department, nature of work and designation. Useful, but it is a card, not a contract.

The Two Documents This One Is Not

Three letters get confused with each other, and only one of them carries the full terms.

A signed offer letter is an agreement, so it is not worthless. It is simply thin: it rarely says anything about leave, transfer, confidentiality or how the relationship ends, which are the things people argue about.

What Every Appointment Letter Has to Carry

This is the common core, and it is the same whichever format you use. Write it once and reuse it. Eight items:

1. Full name and address of the employee, as your records spell them.
2. Designation and category of the role.
3. Date of joining, and the place of work.
4. Wages, broken into the components you actually pay.
5. Social security: which of PF, ESI and gratuity apply to this person.
6. Hours, weekly off and leave, referred to your policy by name.
7. Notice period on both sides.
8. Signature of both parties, dated, with a copy kept on file.

Those eight are the spine. A letter missing wages or social security is the one that gets argued about, because those are the two things an employee checks first and an inspector asks for.

Set the joining date from the record you will still have in three years. Where employee onboarding creates that record once, the letter and the payroll agree by default rather than by luck.

Six Appointment Letter Formats You Can Copy

Each of the six below is a whole letter, not a clause. The wording is the same from clause 1 to clause 5 in every one of them, so the parts that change are clauses 6 and 7. Numbers 1 to 3 differ in how long the job lasts. Numbers 4 to 6 change the relationship itself.

One thing to be clear about before you copy anything. The Code speaks of a prescribed format, and prescribing is done by rules. What follows is drafting guidance, not a substitute for a form your state has notified. Where your state has prescribed one, use it and treat these as a checklist of what the wording has to settle.

1. Permanent, full-time

This is the default, with nothing time-limited and no confirmation step.

[Company letterhead]
Ref: [number]   Date: [date]

[Employee name]
[Address]

Subject: Letter of appointment

Dear [name],

1. Position. You are appointed as [designation] in the [department] department, category [skilled / semi-skilled / unskilled / supervisory].
2. Date of joining and place of work. Your employment begins on [date]. Your place of work is [location].
3. Wages. Your monthly wages are ₹[total], made up of basic ₹[amount], house rent allowance ₹[amount] and [other] ₹[amount], payable by the [date] of the following month.
4. Social security. [Provident Fund / Employees’ State Insurance / gratuity] apply to your employment, and contributions will be made as the law requires.
5. Hours and leave. Your hours are [number] per week with [day] as your weekly off. Leave follows the Company’s leave policy dated [date].
6. Term. Your employment is on a permanent, full-time basis.
7. Notice. Either party may end this employment by giving [period] notice in writing, or wages in lieu of notice.
8. Conduct and confidentiality. You will follow the Company’s rules in force from time to time, and will not disclose its confidential information during or after your employment.

Please sign and return the enclosed copy.

For [Company name]
[Name], [designation]

I accept the terms set out above.
[Employee signature]   [Date]

Use this only where you mean it. Calling a role permanent and then treating it as temporary is the contradiction that gets tested first if the exit is challenged.

2. On probation

Most hires start here, and clause 6 is the one most often written badly.

[Company letterhead]
Ref: [number]   Date: [date]

[Employee name]
[Address]

Subject: Letter of appointment

Dear [name],

1. Position. You are appointed as [designation] in the [department] department, category [skilled / semi-skilled / unskilled / supervisory].
2. Date of joining and place of work. Your employment begins on [date]. Your place of work is [location].
3. Wages. Your monthly wages are ₹[total], made up of basic ₹[amount], house rent allowance ₹[amount] and [other] ₹[amount], payable by the [date] of the following month.
4. Social security. [Provident Fund / Employees’ State Insurance / gratuity] apply to your employment, and contributions will be made as the law requires.
5. Hours and leave. Your hours are [number] per week with [day] as your weekly off. Leave follows the Company’s leave policy dated [date].
6. Probation. You will be on probation for [period] from your date of joining. The Company may extend this period once, in writing. Your appointment stands confirmed only on written confirmation from the Company.
7. Notice. During probation either party may end this employment by giving [short period] notice. After confirmation, [period] notice applies to both sides.
8. Conduct and confidentiality. You will follow the Company’s rules in force from time to time, and will not disclose its confidential information during or after your employment.

Please sign and return the enclosed copy.

For [Company name]
[Name], [designation]

I accept the terms set out above.
[Employee signature]   [Date]

Say what happens if nobody writes anything, because a probation that quietly ran past its end date can be argued either way. And say that extension has to be written down, or an informal extension becomes no extension at all.

3. Fixed-term or contract

The version employers most often skip, and the one the Code names specifically.

[Company letterhead]
Ref: [number]   Date: [date]

[Employee name]
[Address]

Subject: Letter of appointment

Dear [name],

1. Position. You are appointed as [designation] in the [department] department, category [skilled / semi-skilled / unskilled / supervisory].
2. Date of joining and place of work. Your employment begins on [date]. Your place of work is [location].
3. Wages. Your monthly wages are ₹[total], made up of basic ₹[amount], house rent allowance ₹[amount] and [other] ₹[amount], payable by the [date] of the following month.
4. Social security. [Provident Fund / Employees’ State Insurance / gratuity] apply to your employment, and contributions will be made as the law requires.
5. Hours and leave. Your hours are [number] per week with [day] as your weekly off. Leave follows the Company’s leave policy dated [date].
6. Term. Your appointment is for a fixed term from [start date] to [end date]. It will end on that date without further notice, unless extended in writing.
7. Notice. Either party may end this employment before the end date by giving [period] notice in writing, or wages in lieu.
7A. Statutory benefits. The statutory benefits applicable to your category apply for the full term of this appointment.
8. Conduct and confidentiality. You will follow the Company’s rules in force from time to time, and will not disclose its confidential information during or after your employment.

Please sign and return the enclosed copy.

For [Company name]
[Name], [designation]

I accept the terms set out above.
[Employee signature]   [Date]

Fixed-term staff get the appointment letter and the statutory benefits, so do not write the letter as if they are outside the system. A startup on six-month contracts, a hotel hiring for a season and a garment unit taking on a textile order all sit in the same place here.

4. Trainee or apprentice

Here the label has to match the reality of the work.

[Company letterhead]
Ref: [number]   Date: [date]

[Employee name]
[Address]

Subject: Letter of appointment

Dear [name],

1. Position. You are appointed as [designation] in the [department] department, category [skilled / semi-skilled / unskilled / supervisory].
2. Date of joining and place of work. Your employment begins on [date]. Your place of work is [location].
3. Wages. Your monthly wages are ₹[total], made up of basic ₹[amount], house rent allowance ₹[amount] and [other] ₹[amount], payable by the [date] of the following month.
4. Social security. [Provident Fund / Employees’ State Insurance / gratuity] apply to your employment, and contributions will be made as the law requires.
5. Hours and leave. Your hours are [number] per week with [day] as your weekly off. Leave follows the Company’s leave policy dated [date].
6. Engagement. You are engaged as a [trainee / apprentice] for [period] from your date of joining. This engagement does not by itself create a right to employment at the end of that period.
7. Notice. Either party may end this engagement by giving [period] notice in writing.
7A. Stipend. You will receive a stipend of ₹[amount] per month in place of the wages at clause 3.
8. Conduct and confidentiality. You will follow the Company’s rules in force from time to time, and will not disclose its confidential information during or after your employment.

Please sign and return the enclosed copy.

For [Company name]
[Name], [designation]

I accept the terms set out above.
[Employee signature]   [Date]

Two things to get right. Say what happens at the end, because a training letter that goes quiet on the last day is how an expectation of a permanent job gets created without anybody deciding to create it. And be honest about the label: somebody doing an employee’s work on an employee’s hours is an employee, whatever the letter calls them.

5. Part-time

Here the hours have to be explicit, because everything else follows from them.

[Company letterhead]
Ref: [number]   Date: [date]

[Employee name]
[Address]

Subject: Letter of appointment

Dear [name],

1. Position. You are appointed as [designation] in the [department] department, category [skilled / semi-skilled / unskilled / supervisory].
2. Date of joining and place of work. Your employment begins on [date]. Your place of work is [location].
3. Wages. Your monthly wages are ₹[total], made up of basic ₹[amount], house rent allowance ₹[amount] and [other] ₹[amount], payable by the [date] of the following month.
4. Social security. [Provident Fund / Employees’ State Insurance / gratuity] apply to your employment, and contributions will be made as the law requires.
5. Hours and leave. Your hours are [number] per week with [day] as your weekly off. Leave follows the Company’s leave policy dated [date].
6. Term. Your appointment is on a part-time basis for [number] hours per week, ordinarily on [days].
7. Notice. Either party may end this employment by giving [period] notice in writing.
7A. Proportion. Wages, leave and statutory benefits are applied in proportion to the hours worked.
8. Conduct and confidentiality. You will follow the Company’s rules in force from time to time, and will not disclose its confidential information during or after your employment.

Please sign and return the enclosed copy.

For [Company name]
[Name], [designation]

I accept the terms set out above.
[Employee signature]   [Date]

Write the hours as a number, not as a description. A clinic with weekend reception cover and a corporate office with a two-day-a-week designer both need the figure in the letter, because everything from wages to leave is worked out from it.

6. Promotion or revised terms

Not a fresh appointment, so this one is short by design and does not repeat the core.

[Company letterhead]
Ref: [number]   Date: [date]

[Employee name]
[Address]

Subject: Revision of appointment terms

Dear [name],

With effect from [date], your designation stands revised to [new designation] and your monthly wages to ₹[total], made up of basic ₹[amount], house rent allowance ₹[amount] and [other] ₹[amount].
Your place of work, hours, leave, notice period and all other terms of your appointment letter dated [date] remain unchanged.

Please sign and return the enclosed copy.

For [Company name]
[Name], [designation]

I accept the revised terms set out above.
[Employee signature]   [Date]

That second sentence is the whole point. Without it, a revision letter can be read as replacing the original contract, and every term you did not repeat is arguably gone. The increment and appraisal letter formats cover the pay side of the same event.

The Clauses That Cause Trouble Later

Four clauses generate most of the disputes, and all four are cheap to get right at the start.

Notice period is the one that surfaces first, usually at exit rather than at hiring. If your letter is silent on pay in lieu of notice, you will negotiate it under pressure. The experience and relieving letter formats are the documents at the other end of the same relationship.

What to Check in Your Own Letters This Week

Four checks, and none of them needs a lawyer.

1. Pull three recent letters and confirm each carries all eight core items.
2. Check the fixed-term and trainee letters exist at all, not just the permanent ones.
3. Confirm every probation letter has an end date and a written confirmation on file.
4. Compare the joining dates in the letters against the dates in your payroll record.

The last one is where the errors sit. A joining date typed once into a letter and again into a sheet will eventually disagree, and the letter is the version an employee keeps. Where you add people through a bulk employee upload, spot-check a few rows rather than trusting the import.

Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is a complete workforce management system. It runs everything from attendance at the door through to salary, in one place. The joining date, the designation and the wage components that go into the letter are read from the same employee record that attendance and salary already use.

Frequently Asked Questions