India has mandatory EPF (India's counterpart of the 401(k)) contribution for salaried employees, and in cases of dual employment (i.e. dual streams of employer deposits) it causes all sorts of issues and in most cases result in immediate blacklisting of the employee.
Also, labor protection for white-caller workers is non-existent in India. Basic expectations like fixed working hours, 5-day weeks, paid overtime etc are luxuries only attributable to the absolute top cream of employers (which mostly tend to be non-Indian MNCs). Other basic things like 2-week notices, flexible retirement and paternal leaves are just straight-up absent, even in top employers.
I worked with Indian off-shore and on-shore outsourcers, and their working conditions terrified me. These were IT consultants, and as you said, all but the tiniest percentage at the very top were treated like slaves.
There are 2 types of companies in India at present:
1. Services
2. Products
The product companies's culture and environment are on-par with silicon valley and this includes a good pay as well.
Services is another matter. The fundamental issue is the business model. These companies earn revenue per person and hence the incentive is to over-staff or over-sell the people needed. There is no incentive to solve or be pro-active about customer's problems.
Not in India but in Hungary you also have exit paperwork. Without the exit papers from your previous company, a new company cannot begin making social security contributions on your behalf, which means your employment is not legal (there is a grace period I think but most companies will not allow you to start work without the exit papers). Where I work this is not weaponised to stop people leaving, but we do withhold the exit papers until the last day of the notice period (it is common in Hungary to have to give 30-60 days’ notice to your current employer) as a type of enforcement.
Same in my country, to handover the information about leave days taken etc. Employer is not legally allowed to withhold it, though (but some use it as a leverage to get the employee to return all work equipment etc).
At a coarser level it works in India, but not at granular level. If you are involved in a lawsuit then it can drag for years. So essentially it becomes "justice delayed is justice denied".
