Clause 17 of the Model Standing Orders, 2026 makes every establishment have a transfer policy and publish it on the HR portal. It does not say what the policy contains, and it prescribes no form. This pack is the policy and nine formats, built from the clause.
The policy, nine formats, and the service card a transfer sends you back to.
Fourteen clauses, each naming what it rests on. Two of them exist because the orders do not: clause 17 turns on a station and on reasonable notice, and defines neither, so the policy has to. It also carries the continuity of service wording that keeps a transfer from reading like a fresh appointment, and the clause that sends you back to update the service card in Form (ii), which is where the employee record actually changes.
Four layers: three hundred workers, deemed adoption until certified orders operate, the six-month deadline for drafts that ran out on 21-May-2026, and the definition of a worker. A transfer letter can satisfy three and fail the fourth, which is the one about what the person actually does.
Within an establishment, to another station, to another State on consent, to another State on an appointment letter clause, to another establishment, deputation to a client or affiliate, a temporary posting with a return date, a transfer the worker asked for, and the consent itself. The move between two plants is the common one in manufacturing.
Transport charges for the worker, the family and the personal effects, then fifty per cent of that figure again for incidentals. The example runs ₹27,600 of transport into ₹13,800 of incidentals and ₹41,400 payable before the worker is relieved, from the same pay record a salary certificate is issued from.
Only the services schedule lets an employer depute a worker to an office in India or abroad, or to an affiliate or a client. It opens "Subject to the provisions contained paragraph (1) and (2)", so the policy, the consent and the money all survive it. Read as a free hand, it is being read without its opening. It is the limb that reaches corporate offices.
Station, grade and continuity of service all have to survive a transfer. Attendo keeps the service record in one place.
Clause 17(1) of the Model Standing Orders, 2026 reads: every industrial establishment shall have a transfer policy, which shall be made known to all the workers and the details thereof shall be available on the Human Resource portal. The policy is the first duty and the letter is the second, and the publication on the portal is a duty in its own right. The gazette carries three sets of orders, for mining, manufacturing and services, and the wording is identical in all three, so a manufacturing establishment should read this as clause 16 throughout. The orders were notified by S.O. 2312(E) on 08-May-2026, under section 29 of the Industrial Relations Code, one of the four labour codes.
What the policy has to say is left open. The orders prescribe exactly two forms, Form (i) for a notice of discontinuance or restarting of shift working and Form (ii) the service card, and neither concerns a transfer. The clause also turns on two terms it never defines: a station, and reasonable notice. An establishment that adopts the model without defining them has adopted a rule whose trigger nobody can measure.
The four provisos to clause 17(2) are where the letter gets written. Wages, grade, continuity of service and other conditions of service may not be adversely affected. The job has to be one the worker is capable of doing. A move across a State line needs consent or a clause in the letter of appointment backed by a transfer policy that accords with it, which is the limb people drop: the clause on its own is not the second route. And the fourth proviso attaches notice, joining time and money to a station-to-station move.
That fourth proviso is the one employers under-read. It does not say the worker may claim the allowance. It says that unless the notice, the joining time and the travelling allowance with fifty per cent for incidentals are given, such transfer shall not be effected. The money is a condition of the transfer working at all.
Three things this page does not say. Section 40 and the Third Schedule do not govern a transfer: transfer appears in neither that schedule nor the First, and section 40 bites only where the transfer changes a listed condition such as wages or hours. Where an establishment has its own certified standing orders, those govern instead of the model, which is worth checking before any letter that relies on them goes out. And transferring the BUSINESS is not transferring a worker: section 73 of the Code covers ownership or management passing to a new employer, where every worker with not less than one year of continuous service gets notice and compensation as if retrenched. That section carries no threshold of its own, because section 65(1) confines the fifty worker floor to sections 67 to 69, so a firm sitting below three hundred workers and outside clause 17 entirely can still be inside it. None of the nine formats is the right document for that.
Clause 17(2) permits the transfer and then qualifies it four times. Every row names the proviso it rests on.
| The proviso | What it requires | When it bites | If ignored | Applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | No adverse change to wages, grade or continuity | Every transfer | The change is open to challenge | All workers | cl.17(2) |
| Second | Only to a job the worker can do | Every transfer | The posting is open to challenge | All workers | cl.17(2) |
| Third | Consent, or an appointment clause with a matching policy | Crossing a State line | No lawful basis to move | All workers | cl.17(2) |
| Fourth | Notice, joining time, transport plus 50% | Station to station | Transfer shall not be effected | All workers | cl.17(2) |
| And in the services schedule only | Deputation in India or abroad | Client or affiliate | Still subject to (1) and (2) | Services | cl.17(3) |
Where standing orders start. Section 28(1) applies Chapter IV to an establishment with three hundred or more workers, or that had three hundred on any day of the preceding twelve months. Below it, clause 17 does not reach you and the mobility clause in the contract is the whole of the law on transfers.
Source: Industrial Relations Code, 2020, s.28(1), with s.29(2) on deemed adoptionPaid on top of the transport charges, to meet incidental charges, on a move from one station to another. The fourth proviso to clause 17(2) puts it with reasonable notice and reasonable joining time, and says that without them such transfer shall not be effected. The consequence falls on the transfer, not on the worker's claim.
Source: Model Standing Orders, 2026, S.O. 2312(E), clause 17(2), fourth provisoThe line above which a supervisor stops being a worker, under section 2(zr). Read it carefully: the limit is on WAGES as section 2(zq) defines them, which is basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, not gross pay. A supervisor on a larger package can still be under the line. The definition also excludes anyone employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity, and for those the transfer is a contract question.
Source: Industrial Relations Code, 2020, s.2(zr)(iii) and (iv)Clause 17(1) makes the policy the first duty and publication on the Human Resource portal a duty in its own right. A letter issued under a policy that does not exist is issued under nothing.
The fourth proviso says that unless notice, joining time and travelling allowance including transport charges and fifty per cent thereof are given, such transfer shall not be effected. The consequence runs to the transfer.
The third proviso allows two routes and no third: the worker's consent, or a specific provision in the letter of appointment with a policy that accords with it. An older appointment letter silent on mobility leaves only consent.
Section 2(zr) excludes anyone employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity, and a supervisor drawing wages above ₹18,000 a month. Wages there is basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, not gross pay, so the second limb catches fewer people than it looks. Holding yourself to clause 17 anyway is fine. Expecting it to govern the letter is not.
Clause 17(3) is in the services schedule only and opens "Subject to the provisions contained paragraph (1) and (2)". Deputation to a client, an affiliate or an office abroad still needs the policy, the consent where a State line is crossed, and the money.
The first proviso protects continuity of service. A letter silent on the original joining date, seniority and the leave balance invites the argument that the transfer reset them, which surfaces years later in a gratuity calculation at the end of the employment.
One page, one situation, no policy
A policy, nine formats and the clause behind them
Grade, seniority and the joining date have to survive the move. Attendo keeps the service record and the payroll register together.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitals and education. This template is one of the free HR downloads we publish, each built from the gazette rather than from other templates.
A transfer policy, nine formats and the clause behind them, in editable Word. Free, and no card.
