Amendment to labour fund Act likely to be tabled

Sources said that at present Rs 1.5 crore is collected per annum for this fund. With the proposed amendment,another Rs 72 lakh is expected to be collected. The state government also gives an ex gratia grant of Rs 16 lakh to this fund per year. Around 1.75 lakh employees benefit from this fund as they make monthly contributions. Around 20 employees’ welfare schemes are expected to run from this money,including the Rs 5,100 shagun scheme,Rs 30,000 to be given on each girl’s marriage,Rs 40,000 to be paid to the next of kin in case of an employee’s death,and several loan schemes.

“However,due to lack of money,the scheme has not been implemented properly. So it was initially proposed that the contribution should be Rs 5 per employee and employer. But this was turned down by the government and only increases of Rs 1 and Rs 2 have now been proposed,” said an official.

The contribution to the labour welfare fund is much higher in neighbouring Haryana – Rs 5 per employee and Rs 10 per employer. Some time ago the Board employees were not paid salaries for 23 months. A few months back they were paid salaries which totalled around Rs 1.05 crore,that too as a one-time grant.

The basic minimum salary (Rs 3,785 per month) in Punjab is also less compared to other states. When contacted,Punjab Labour and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tikshan Sud said,”The contributions by the employee and the employer to this fund were started in 2007 while the neighbouring state of Haryana had started these contributions many years ago. We will further consider raising of contributions to this fund at the Board and government level.