Ministry of Labour & Employment Scheme to partially reimburse employers for Maternity Benefits 02 JAN 2019 Government is working on an Incentive Scheme wherein seven weeks wages shall be reimbursed to employers who employ women workers and provide the maternity benefit of 26 weeks paid leave, as provided for in the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017. To enable an entity to avail of the incentive, the women employees working in their entity should be a wage earner of less than Rs.15,000/- per month and a member of Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) for at least one year and not covered by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). A meeting of Stakeholders’ Consultation with representatives of concerned Central Ministries, State Governments, Employers’, Employees’ etc. was held on 14.11.2018 to discuss the matter. The Scheme was supported by and large with the majority of stakeholders. The scheme is proposed to be administered after obtaining the appro...

Ministry of Labour & Employment ESIC wins ‘ISSA GOOD Practice Award, Asia & the Pacific 2018’ 08 OCT 2018 The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has won the ISSA Good Practice Award’ for Administrative Solution for Coverage Extension at the “Regional Social Security Forum for Asia and the Pacific” held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently. The award recognizes the measures taken by ESIC for extension of coverage-SPREE (Scheme for Promoting Registration of Employers and Employees), reduced rate of contribution rates for 24 months in newly implemented areas and raising the wage limit for coverage under the ESI Act, etc. Shri Raj Kumar, IAS, Director General, ESIC represented Employees’ State Insurance Corporation and received the Certificate of Merit on behalf of ESIC. The Regional Social Security Forum for Asia and the Pacific is a triennial Forum, which is the most important social security event in the Region.  For the triennial Regional Forum, ISSA invi...