Maternity leave is a statutory leave

Maternity leave is a statutory leave

· The expecting women employees are eligible to avail maternity leave,
· Employee should have completed a minimum of 80 days of service to be eligible for
maternity leave,
· If you are on probation, you are entitled to avail maternity leave, subject to fulfillment
of the above mentioned conditions.

Entitlement under Maternity Benefit Act

· Paid maternity leave entitles is for 3 months or 90 days (although as per the maternity
Benefit Act, 1961, a women employee is eligible for 12 weeks or 84 days of leave).She can avail a maternity leave of 12 weeks depending on your pre / post-delivery requirement. Full salary is payable during first 3 months of maternity leave.

Process in applying maternity leave

· You need to inform your supervisor that you will be preceding on maternity leave at
least 3 months before the date of delivery date.

Amendment in the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976

Amendment in the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976

Ministry of Labour and Employment Notification (New Delhi, dtd. 8th Jan. 2011) G.S.R. 9(E)  In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 6C, read with sub-section(1) of Section 7 of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (19 of 1952), the Central Govt. hereby makes the following Scheme, further to amend the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976, namely :

1.   (1) This Scheme may called the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance (Amendment) Scheme 2011.

                (2) It shall come into force from the date of its publication in the official gazzatte.

2.             In the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976, in paragraph 22, after sub-graph(2),

the following sub-paragraph shall be substituted, namely :-

                22(A)on the death of an employee, who is member of the fund or of a provident fund exempted under Section 17 of the Act as the case may be, who was in the employment of the same establishment for a continuous period of twelve months, preceding the month in which he died, the persons entitled to receive the provident fund accumulation of the deceased shall, in addition to such accumulations to be paid an amount, equal to :-

(i)             The average monthly wages drawn (subject to a maximum of rupees six thousand five hundred)during the twelve months preceding the month in which he died, multiplied by twenty times or;

(ii)            The amount of benefit under sub-paragraph(1) whichever is higher.”

Labour Law Amendments At Glance - Year 2010

Labour Law Amendments At Glance - Year 2010

Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923

The Act will now be called „The Employees‟ Compensation Act, 1923‟. The compensation under the Act has been enhanced from Rs. 80,000/- to Rs. 1,20,000/- in case of death. From Rs. 90,000/- to Rs. 1,40,000/- in case of disablement. Rs. 2500/- to Rs. 5000/- towards funeral expenses. The employee shall be reimbursed the actual treatment of injuries caused during the course of employment without any ceiling. A new section 25A has been added for the Commissioner to dispose the matter relating to compensation under this Act within a period of three months from date of reference. The wage ceiling limit for working out compensation has been increased from Rs. 4000/- to Rs. 8000/- per month. The Amendment Act was notified on 23.12.2009 and made effective from 18.01.2010.

Payment of Gratuity act, 1972

The Act has been amended to cover teachers in educational institutions in the Act. The Amendment Act was notified on 31.12.2009 and was made effective from 03.04.1997. The ceiling on gratuity has been enhanced from Rs. 3.5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh. The Amendment Act was notified on 8.05.2010 and made effective from 24.05.2010.

Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948

The Act has been amended to improve the quality of delivery of benefits under the scheme and also to enable ESI infrastructure to be used to provide health care to workers of unorganised sector. The Amendment Act was notified on 25.05.2010 and made effective from 01.06.2010.

The Plantation Labour Act, 1951

The Act has been amended to provide safety and occupational health care to plantation workers. The Amendment Act was notified on 18.05.2010 and made effective from 01.06.2010.

The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

The wage ceiling enhanced from Rs. 1600/- to Rs.10,000/- per month to cover workmen working in supervisory capacity, and to provide direct access for the workman to the Labour Court or Tribunal in case of disputes arising out of Section 2( a ) of the Act. The scope of qualifications of Presiding Officers of Labour Courts has been expanded. The Labour Court or Tribunal has been empowered to execute Grievance Redressal Machinery and the awards. The Amendment Act was notified on 19.8.2010 and made effective from 15.9.2010.

EPFO cannot claim damages for delayed payment' (08-Nov-10)

EPFO cannot claim damages for delayed payment' (08-Nov-10) 

The Madras High Court bench here has ruled that the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) cannot claim damages from employers for delayed payment of their contribution "if there is no intention to commit a prohibited act or actus reus" (action or conduct that is a constituent element of a crime) behind the delay.

The ruling was given by Justices R Banumathi and S Nagamuthu while dismissing a writ appeal filed by Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II, EPFO, against a chit fund company, which paid its contribution belatedly owing to an interim stay granted by the court.

The damages sought by the EPFO under Section 14-B of EPF and Miscellaneous Provisions Act were to penalise the employer as well as compensate the loss sustained by employees on account of default in remittance of the money. "But, in this case, the employer could not pay the contribution because of the act of the employees approached the High Court and got the order of interim stay. Thus, the loss, if any, sustained by the employees, is attributable to their own act and they are not entitled to damages," the bench said

AMENDMENT FOR INTER STATE MIGRANT WORKMEN ACT, 1979

AMENDMENT FOR INTER STATE MIGRANT WORKMEN ACT, 1979

In order to safeguard the interests of the migrant workers, the Government has enacted Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 which, inter-alia, provides for payment of minimum wages, journey allowance, displacement allowance, residential accommodation, medical facilities and protective clothing etc. On the recommendations of Working Group constituted by Indian Labour Conference held at New Delhi on 20-21 February, 2009, a Tripartite Group was constituted to examine the provision of Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979. The Group examined various provisions of the Act and reviewed the problems faced by the migrant workers, existing provisions of the Act, enforcement machinery, problem in implementation of the Act etc. The Group has submitted its report and the report has been placed before Indian Labour Conference held on 23-24 November, 2010. The Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shri Harish Rawat gave this information in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on December 1, 2010

LATEST AMENDMENTS TO EMPLOYEES PROVIDENT FUND AND PENSION SCHEMES- MORE HARDSHIP FOR INTERNATIONAL WORKERS

LATEST AMENDMENTS TO EMPLOYEES PROVIDENT FUND AND PENSION SCHEMES- MORE HARDSHIP FOR INTERNATIONAL WORKERS

This new amendment will cause major hardship to all International Workers coming from non

Social Security Agreement countries as well as their employer companies. Additionally, if International Workers not permitted to withdraw the Provident Fund amount until the age of 58, huge sums of money will get blocked in their Provident Fund accounts and may well be lost and it will be extremely challenging for them to come back and reclaim this money upon retirement. Additionally, the proposal to credit the accumulated balance of Provident Fund to an Indian bank account (namely State Bank of India) would also create difficulty as International Workers would need to hold the Indian bank account until the age of 58, which may not be practically viable. Moreover, for the existing International Workers the change will be even more significant since many of them were caught unawares by the 2008 amendment and have been contributing to Provident Fund at the cost of their take home pay under the belief that they would be able to recover these contributions at the time of repatriation of their home country. Now, they are faced with a harsh situation where they will have to wait for many more years before they get their rightful dues.

PROVIDENT FUND CONTRIBUTIONS ON ALLOWANCES

PROVIDENT FUND CONTRIBUTIONS ON ALLOWANCES

The first bench of the Madras High Court has stayed the order of a Single Judge passed in The Management of Reynolds Pens India Pvt. Ltd., Kancheepuram and Others vs. The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II, Chennai, 2011 LLR 876, holding that the employees’ provident fund contributions were payable on various allowances like Conveyance Allowance, Education Allowance, Special Allowances, Food Concessions, Medical Allowance, Special Holidays, Night Shift Incentive and City Compensatory Allowance. The stay order was passed in the presence of the counsel for Provident Fund Department. No next date has been fixed for final hearing of the appeal.

The Review Petitions before Madhya Pradesh High Court against the orders in Montage Enterprises, 2011 LLR 867 & Surya Roshini Ltd. etc., 2011 LLR 568 etc. pertaining to various allowances are fixed for 14th October, 2011.