Rebadged to a New Company: Does Your Retirement Age Change? Seeking Advice

If an employee is rebadged to a new company, does the new company reduce the retirement age of the employee, or must they follow the retirement age of the original employer? Please advise.

It would depend on how the employee was rebadged in the new organization. It needs to be analyzed as to whether there was a full and irreversible change in service or if there existed some sort of continuity between the service in both organizations. The principle is that the service condition initially accepted by the employer and the employee is binding on both sides, and it can be changed to the detriment of the employee only with the acceptance of both parties. The terms of employment in the new organization conveyed to the employee have to be looked into. Are the two organizations organically linked to each other?

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

Both organizations have a client and vendor relationship. The vendor has rebadged the employees of the client. The client has a retirement age of 60 years, but now the new employer has reduced it to 55 for all employees based on their positions.

I am wondering if I can challenge the new employer to maintain my original employer's retirement age. Could you please advise if there is any possibility to contest this legally? A 5-year reduction in the retirement age will impact my entire family.

By the way, I have been continuously billing for the same client for 6 years and have been working for another client for the last couple of months. I am ready to pay a fee to file a case based on the likelihood of winning.

Service Transfer and Retirement Age Concerns

Presumably, you did not resign from the services of the client, nor was your full and final settlement made. Then, how was your service transferred to the Vendor? Is it that you are put to work at the Vendor's premises and subject to its rules? In case it is so, it cannot change your service entitlements to your detriment. You need to file a case if the Vendor retires you at 55. The fact that you have been working for another client for the last two months is not clear. More facts are needed to get a clear picture of your rights with respect to the client.

Retirement Ages Across Different Establishments

There are different retirement ages followed by various establishments. Additionally, there are different retirement ages for different categories of employees. Therefore, employees must retire upon reaching the retirement age set by their establishment.

Client and Vendor Distinctions

The client and vendors are two separate entities. Their establishments differ from each other and operate under separate rules and policies. Therefore, a vendor is not obligated to follow the service rules of a client. The employees of the establishment are bound by the rules of their paymaster.

Personally, I feel that nowadays, certain fancy terms are simply copied from the HR practices of the West and applied to circumvent the provisions of Indian Labor Laws for the sake of easy hire and fire depending on market fluctuations of business. "Rebadging" is one of such terms, which simply means, as far as I am able to understand, converting a regular employee to the status of a contract laborer or some kind of outsourced employee through a third-party agency.

Thus, when the very concept is viewed as unfavorable by the law, there can be no qualms about the alterations of the service conditions of the rebadged employee to his disadvantage. The choice before him is whether to remain employed at any cost or not.

I would like to have your opinion on the term "Rebadged Employee." This refers to an employee whose employment with the employer is terminated on the grounds of outsourcing but who then gets engaged with a contractor in the establishment of the principal employer.

Do agreements of this nature, involving outsourcing and contracting, not fall under the categories of sham and camouflage?

Thank you for your insights.

Best regards, [Your Name]

Each establishment or employer has its own set of terms. Mere relation and contractor interchange cannot enforce the whole set of rules in any establishment, whether it is a PE or Contractor.

Query on Contractor Reassignment

The query is as follows: [Earlier, my contractor had to be deployed at a site 30 km away from my residence. After relocating, the new workplace is 15 km away. Can I argue with the new company that I have to travel 30 km as per the previous posting?] Since neither the contractor nor the PE has changed, only the PE has been replaced. The contractor remains the same. In my understanding, the contractor has reassigned the individual to a different PE, where the retirement age is 55, which is considered a rebadging. This term is used by the employee. It is important to note that the contractor falls within the 60-year-old age bracket according to the post.

Let the contractor decide whether, if the new PE requests retirement at a younger age, the contractor can reassign the mentioned employee to another PE where retirement up to 60 years old is permitted.