The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 is an important legislation governing retirement benefits received by workers, and acquires particular significance in the absence of pension and lack of access to adequate social security for a large number of workers. We discuss here case laws pertaining to the Act in the last decade in the light of increasing the upper limit of gratuity payable to Rs. 10 lakhs. Case law pertaining to this important social security benefit suggests three broad areas of concern: inclusion-exclusion dynamics related to access to gratuity rights, the linkage of the denial or grant of payment of gratuity to reward for compliance and punishment for dissent, assertions of managerial prerogatives over the rights of workers in the pursuit of unilateralist dominance over employment relations.