Brick HR

Section 9A of the Industrial Disputes Act refers to the steps that an employer should take before withdrawing any eligible benefits or altering service conditions of the workmen.    In the case of Jossie V.E v. Flag Officer ,    Employees were paid Overtime Allowances wrongly including HRA, CCA etc .    The management corrected the mistake and reduced the overtime allowances without any notice.     The Kerala High Court, while considering the legality of management’s action, held that  compliance of Section 9A is not required for correcting any mistake that has occurred in payment of salary of employees.

The phrase ‘ordinary rate of wages’ appear in Section 59 of the Factories Act , which require an employer to pay ‘ extra wages for overtime ’ work in a factory.    According to the said section, where a worker works in a factory for more than 9hrs in a day or for more than 48hrs in any week, he shall, in respect of overtime work, be entitled to wages at the rate of twice his ‘ordinary rate of wages’.     The Kerala High Court, in the case of Jossie v. Flag Officer , was confronted with the question of eligible allowances that form part of ‘ordinary rate of wages’.     The court held that ‘ordinary rate of wages’ includes only salary and allowances for the work [like Dearness Allowance (DA)].   It does not include such allowances which are either compensatory in character or incentive in nature. Therefore court held that  House Rent Allowance (HRA),  City Compensatory Allowance (CCA),   Transport...

Center will pass bill for minimum wages  Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya says it will benefit 40 crore employees in organized sector with uniform wage Hints at hiking the salary limit from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 to ensure ESI benefits Tirupati: Center will introduce a bill in the ensuing Parliament session for approval of providing a uniform minimum wages to 40 crore employees engaged in the country, said Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya. He said this after inspecting the Rs 110 crore regional ESI hospital which is coming up Tirupati, on Saturday, the Union Minister said the bill proposed to hike and ensure uniform minimum wage to all the unorganised sector employees for their welfare.  He averred "If necessary, the government will bring an ordinance to implement a national level uniform minimum wage and welfare measures for the unorganized sector employees"   ...

comply4HR: Overtime Wages Calculation on Basic Wages + DA Or... : There is always a confusion that how the Overtime should be calculated. Lets see the definition of overtime across Shops & Establishment...

In the appeal against the order of the EPF Authority under section 7A of the Act the appellant have stated that directing the appellant to deposit the dues is illegal as the EPF Authority has assessed the dues considering the allowances as ‘basic wages’. The EPF Appellate Tribunal observed that the provident fund contribution is to be calculated on the basic wages and not upon the wages fixed under the Minimum Wages Act as already settled by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in the case of APFC Gurgaon vs. M/s. G4S Security Services (I) Ltd., 2011 LLR 316. Fixation of wage structure is within the domain of the employer. Wages can be split into allowances. Hence, order of the EPF Authority cannot sustain and appeal is allowed. M/s. SSM Fine Yarns vs. RPFC, Madurai ATA  No.734(13 ) 2010 decided on 7.2.2012

It may be recollected that in  Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner, Gurgaon Vs. G4S Security Services (India) Limited & Anr, 2011 LLR 316 ,  the Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that the provident fund contributions are not necessarily to be paid on the wages which are fixed under the Minimum Wages Act. Being aggrieved, the EPFO filed a Letters Patent Appeal No.  1139 of 2011  before the Division Bench challenging the order of learned Single Judge.  The Division Bench, comprising of the Hon’ble Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar and the Hon’ble Justice A.K. Mittal, on  20.07.2011  dismissed the appeal.

The grievance of the appellant in the appeal is that the order dated 25.06.2010 passed by the EPF Authority under section 7A of the Act that -  the employer is liable to pay contributions under the Act on the wages as fixed under the Minimum Wages Act and not the actual wages paid to the workmen is illegal. The Appellate Tribunal observed that - the contribution under the Act is to be paid upon the ‘basic wages’ as defined under the Act and not upon the wages fixed under the Minimum Wages Act   Reference - As also held by the Punjab & Haryana High Court in the case of APFC Gurgaon vs. M/s. G4S Security Services (I) Ltd., 2011   Hence, the impugned order of the EPF Authority is set aside and appeal allowed. M/s. Black Panther Security Force vs APFC, Nagpur ATA   No.458(9)/2010   decided on 31.1.2012

The definition of ‘Basic Wages’ has been defined under Section 2(b) of the EPF & MP Act, 1952 as below:  Section 2(b) “basic wages” means all emoluments which are earned by an employee while on duty or on leave or on holidays with wages in either case in accordance with the terms of the contract of employment and which are paid or payable in cash to him, but does not include  The cash value of any food concession;  Any dearness allowance (that is to say, all cash payments by whatever name called paid to an employee on account of a rise in the cost of living), house rent allowance, overtime allowance, bonus, commission or any other similar allowance payable to the employee in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment;  Any presents made by the employer;  From the above definition it is clear that all the emoluments which are earned by an employee other than those specifically excluded components given under clause i, ii ...

MADRAS HIGH COURT Hon'ble Mr. K. Mohan Ram, J. Hon'ble Mr. S. Palanivelu, J. W.A. No. 1229/2000 C.M.P. No. 10831/2000, D/–10-11-2010 Management of India Tourism Development Corporation, Madras and Anr. vs. General Secretary, All India ITDC Employees' Union PAYMENT OF BONUS ACT, 1965 – Section 3  –  Bonus – Minimum Bonus  –  Appellants challenged the order of Learned Single Judge allowing writ petition and directing the petitioner to pay bonus to all the workers even in future, on consideration of overall balance sheet prepared on the basis of profit and loss account of the petitioner-Corporation – The Division Bench observed;- (i) The Learned Single Judge has not at all referred to the provisions of Section 3 of the Act; (ii) The Labour Judge had rightly concluded that each and every duty free shop is treated as a separate unit for computation of quantum of bonus under section 3 of the Act. Paras 4, 10 and 15 For Appellant:  Mr. S. Jayaraman, Advoca...

So, this is all about ESIC Wages Section 2(22) in The Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948(22) “"wages"” means -  All remuneration paid or payable in cash to an employee, if the terms of the contract of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled and includes 34 [any payment to an employee in respect of any period of authorized leave, lock-out, strike which is not illegal or lay-off and] other additional remuneration, if any,  [provided- paid at intervals not exceeding two months], but does not include — (a)  any contribution paid by the employer to any pension fund or provident fund, or under this Act; (b)  any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession; (c)   any sum paid to the person employed to defray special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment;   or (d)  any gratuity payable on discharge; WASHING ALLOWANCE:   It is a sum paid to defray special expenses entailed by the natur...