10 labour laws every Indian employee should know.

According to the United Nations, India has the largest youth population and stands at a point where the dream of becoming the super economy seems a possibility now. With mixed viewpoints of different people, labour laws and reforms has always been a topic of controversy which no one wants to discuss. When the scenario is such, it becomes all the more important for both the parties employers as well as the employees in both organized and un-organized sectors to be well aware about the laws and right for both existing and the on-going reforms.

Labour laws and its reforms has always been a topic of debate and concern since past many years. In this article we have listed some of the important acts that every citizen of India should know.

1. The Factories Act, 1948

This act was established to prevent any kind of exploitation on the factory workers by the owners and was created to defend the rights and interest of the employees. As per this law, it is mandatory to assure some sort of working conditions fixed by both the employers or the factory owners for the employees. It is clearly mentioned that the maximum working hours should not be more than 48 hours per week. And one weekly holiday is a must to be provided to any employee.

2. The Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952

The Employees Provident Fund (PF) 1952 is to sanction a type of social security to the employees. This particular Act is applicable for every employee who works in a factory or any other establishment whether organized sector or un-organized one, wherein they get welfare such as medical care, housing, retirement pension, benefits of education and financing insurance policy etc.

3. Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill 2017

Maternity Benefit Act was established in 1961 to benefit expecting mothers and later amendments were made in 2017 to provide more benefits to the expecting employee. The act was made to protect employment of the women employee during the time of maternity and provides her with ‘maternity benefit’ i.e full paid absent from work – to let take care of her child and herself. The new amendments has increased the duration of paid maternity leave available for women employees from the existing 12 weeks to 26 weeks. Along with this, some more claws have been added like maternity leave for adoptive and commissioning mothers, work from home option, crèche facility and employee awareness at the time of appointment.

4. The Apprentices Act , 1961

Under this act, one is allowed to take casual leave of 12 days, medical leave of 15 days and certain other leaves of 10 days in a year (which are paid). And one is just required to work for 42 or 48 hours a week. This is to ensure there is a work-life balance for the employees.

5. The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923

This act proves to be helpful for the employees injured in an accident. The Workmen’s Compensation Act 1923, was established to provide financial protection to the workers as well as their dependents in the form of compensation, in the case of sudden accidental injury.

6. The Payment of Gratuity Act , 1972

Gratuity is nothing but a cumulative part of the salary received by the employees. The company has to provide its employees a set amount as a gratitude for the services performed by them during their tenure with the company.

It is one of the retirement benefits that the company gives to their employees at the time of leaving the company. But to become eligible for this, they have to complete at least one year of service to get the benefit of gratuity in case of his or her death.

7. The Payment of Wages Act, 1936

It aims at providing financial assurance of payment of wages or salary without any sort of deductions.  As per this act, the employer has not right to take away the money he is entitled to pay. And, not only the assurance, but timely imbursement of wages is also mentioned in this act. Every employee should know that, even if he/she is terminated from the services they are qualified to take their salary for that particular month.

8. The Industrial Disputes Act ,1947

As the name suggests, this act was made to protect the employees who has dispute with their employers. No employer can throw the employee out just like that, he has to provide a notice of at least 6 weeks before they terminate you from the service.

9. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965

As a component of profit or productivity, the Payment of bonus Act 1965 makes it mandatory for employers to provide bonus to the employees. If the employee has worked for at least 30 working days in that particular year, he or she is entitled to receive the bonus. Also, if you are not given the same, you can claim your rightful bonus  in that same year.

10. The Employees State Insurance Act (ESIC) , 1948

This act protects benefits for the workers who are sick and got injured somehow while they were working or on duty. ESIC is a self-financing security form and a health insurance scheme for all workers. This scheme provides medical benefit for the employees and their families.

It also provides dependents’ benefit for the dependent family member in case of death due to any sort of employment injury. In such case, the employers should deposit the money each month in the employee’s A/C. Also, they should grant leave to the protected (insured) employees based on their medical certificates. And, the employer is entitled to cover the expenditures in case of funeral or any other sort of tragedy that happened with their employees while on duty.