An employer fails to pay the amount of gratuity to which an employee is entitled under the Code on…

Section 133(g) of the Code on Social Security, 2020 covers an employer who fails to pay any amount of gratuity to which an employee is entitled under the Code. Under s.133(ii), such an offence is punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees, or with both.

Imprisonment of one to three years with a fine of one lakh rupees applies to an employer who fails to pay employees' contributions deducted from their wages (s.133(a), (i)(a)). A fine of up to fifty thousand rupees alone applies to the clauses listed in s.133(iv), such as residual contraventions. Imprisonment of three months to two years with a minimum fine of ten thousand rupees is not the punishment under the Code. (The specific fine for contravening s.4A(5) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 has no separate counterpart in the Code.)