LABOUR LAW AMENDEMENTS 2017-2018
The Indian government has been actively working to raise the country to
among the top 50 in the World Bank's Ease
of Doing Business rankings. In the most recent survey, India
jumped 30 positions to 100 and was recognized as one of the top 10
improvers and the only large country to have achieved such a significant shift
in a year's time.
Keeping a view of Welfare,Health and Safety of the employees the labour
department of India is simplifying labour laws. The central government of India
is making an exercise to group 38 labour acts into 4 labour codes.
They are
1..code on wages,
2.. code on industrial relations,
3.. code on social security and
4…code on
occupational safety-health & working conditions.
1..Amendment To The
Payment Of Bonus Act:
The eligibility limit for bonus has increased to
21000 Rs from 10000 Rs and the bonus ceiling limit was also increased to 7000
Rs from 3500 Rs.
2..Payment Of Wages Act 2017:
Now employers can pay wages either by currency or
cheque or direct credit into their bank account without obtaining written
authorisation from the employees.
3..Maternity Benefit Amendment Act 2017:
The maternity leaves for women employees have
increased from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.
4..Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation)
Amendment Act 2016:
This amendment made a complete ban on employing
children below 14 years of age.
5..The Employee Compensation (Amendment) Act:
As per this amendment, every employer has to
immediately inform the employees about their rights to compensation in both
written and electronic forms either in English or Hindi or local language which
can be understood by the employee.
6..A Model
Shops and Establishments (RE&CS) Bill 2016
This bill provides a freedom to the establishments
to operate for 365 days in a year without any restrictions on opening and
closing timings.
The Government of Maharashtra has notified the
Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions
of Service) Act, 2017 with effect from 19 December 2017. The Act replaces the
erstwhile Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act, 1948.
Applicability
The Act is applicable to all establishments in the
State of Maharashtra, employing 10 or
more workers.
Registration of
establishments with 10 or more workers
Every establishment employing ten or more workers
shall register under the Act by making an application in the prescribed manner.
The application is required to be made within 60 days from the date of
commencement of this Act or the date on which the establishment commences its business.
Small Businesses gets the benefits of the same.
7...Ease of
Compliance to maintain Registers under various Labour Laws Rules, 2017
In a move to make it easier for
employers to comply with certain labor laws, the Indian government reduced from
56 to 5 the number of registers employers are required
to keep under nine different federal level labor statutes. Employers are
permitted to maintain these registers in electronic form as long as the
integrity, serial numbers, and contents of the columns of the consolidated
registers are not modified.
Similarly, the
number of forms and returns employers are required to file under three federal
labor laws has been reduced from 36 to 12 by eliminating redundancies and
duplications
8…The Workmen’s Compensation Act
( a).. THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION (AMENDMENT)
ACT, 2009 is now renamed as THE EMPLOYEE'S COMPENSATION (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2009
and wherever "workman" or "workmen" is mentioned in the
entire Act the same needs to be read as "Employee"
( b).. The
compensation payable on death from the injury, is
(i) minimum of Rs.80000 is increased to
Rs.120000 or
(ii) 50% of the monthly wages of deceased
multiplied by the relevant factor.
(c)
The compensation payable on Permanent Total Disablement from the injury, is (i)
minimum of Rs.90000 is increased to Rs.140000 or (ii) 60% of the monthly wages
of deceased multiplied by the relevant factor.
(4)
Definition of wages remains unaltered.
(5)
For the purpose of claims settlement actual monthly wages have to be calculated
without ceiling of Rs.4000/- which will lead to multifold increase in claim
outgo. Revised monthly wage ceiling limit of 50% of Rs.4000 increased to
Rs.8000-Employees Compensation Act for maximum compensation calculation.
9.. The Maternity Benefit
(amendment )Act,2017
The
Maternity Benefit Act 1961 protects the employment of women during the time of
her maternity and entitles her of a ‘maternity benefit’ – i.e. full paid
absence from work – to take care for her child. The act is applicable to all
establishments employing 10 or more persons.
The extension of maternity leave to 26 weeks, placing India
among the top three countries in generosity of maternity benefits
10.. Rights of Persons
with Disabilities Act, 2016,
The salient features of the Bill are:
1.Disability
has been defined based on an evolving and dynamic concept.
2. The
types of disabilities have been increased from existing 7 to 21 and the Central
Government
will have the power to add more types of disabilities.
3..Creation of National and State
Fund will be created to provide financial support to the persons with
disabilities. The existing National Fund for Persons with Disabilities and the
Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities will be subsumed with
the National Fund.
4..The Bill provides for penalties
for offences committed against persons with disabilities and also violation of
the provisions of the new law.
5..Special Courts will be
designated in each district to handle cases concerning violation of rights of
PwDs.
By way of said Amendment Rules the Ministry raised wage
threshold to INR 21,000 from
current INR 15000,to receive
the benefits of ESI and to provide coverage to more
employees.
12..The Gratuity Act OF
1972(AMENDEMENT)
The Gratuity act was amended
on Thursday 22nd March 2018 .Payment of Gratuity act
(Amendment) Bill
2017
a. Hiring
of industrial workers on a fixed
term contracts allowed.
b. any worker hired on contract for a fixed
period is entitled to gratuity even if his period of
employment
does not extend to the qualifying period
of employment as required under
the said
statute.
c… worker
hired on contract basis are now entitled to
1..PF.. 2
ESI benefits 3 Bonus
4 Gratuity 5 Other compensation
d.. those workers in permanent employment for a continuous
period of 5 years and more are
entitled to
receive gratuity when they leave the organization.
e. .Now Private sector workers will receive the same tax
advantage which government
employees were enjoying till date. Now Rs 20 lacs gratuity tax free..
13. Industrial
Employment (SO) Central (amendment) Rules
Defn: Industry now
includes all those who are employed in service Estd ,with a work force of
at least 10 or more
employees
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