The Lok Sabha has approved
amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act that seeks to make more workers eligible
for bonus by raising the pay eligibility limit of employees to Rs 21,000 per
month from Rs 10,000.
The bill, tabled in the house
earlier this month, also seeks to enhance the monthly bonus calculation ceiling
to Rs 7,000 per month from Rs 3,500, thus substantially increasing the amount
of bonus.
Both the proposed changes are in
line with the demands of 10 central trade unions, which had observed a day-long
strike on September 22.
The bill will now be tabled in Rajya
Sabha. Once approved, it will be made effective from April 1, 2015.
"I thank all parties for
supporting the historic decision of this government," Labour Minister
Bandaru Dattatreya said after the discussion in Lok Sabha.
The Payment of Bonus Act 1965 is
applicable to every factory and other establishment in which 20 or more people
are employed on any day during an accounting year.
The bill also provides for a new
proviso in Section 12, which empowers the central government to vary the basis
of computing the bonus.
As it stands today, Section 12 says
that where the salary or wage of an employee exceeds Rs 3,500 per month, the
minimum or maximum bonus payable to the employee shall be calculated as if his
salary or wage was Rs 3,500 per month.
The last amendment to both the
eligibility limit and the calculation ceilings under the Act was carried out in
2007 and made effective from April 1, 2006.
This amendment in the Act to
increase wage ceiling and bonus calculation ceiling was one of assurances given
by the Centre after 10 central trade unions went on a day-long strike on
September 2.
Source:-The Economic Times
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