Dear all,
1. As regards coverage under ESI Act, in case of Factory employing 10 or more employees with power being used for manufacturing process or 20 without aid of power; and 20 or more employees in respect of Shop / Establishment, such Entity will be deemed to be covered under the ESI Act from the day, the no. of employees are 10 or more / 20 or more as the case may be. The burden of coverage and compliance are on the Employer and not on ESIC. Even non-allocation of Code no. by ESIC is not an excuse for non-compliance.
2. In the instant case, notwithstanding no. of the coverable employees viz. 4 ( whose wages are less than Rs.10,000/-), the Manufacturing Unit / Establishment as the case is therefore deemed to covered under ESI from date from which the Co. had employed 10 or more employees (in case of mfg. with aid of Power) / 20 or more otherwise. Though the Unit / Entity will be covered under ESI from the aforesaid date, compliance of ESI contribution both Employers component as well as Employees component will be warranted only in r/o of employees had received / receiving less then Rs.10,000 /- ( wef 1-10-2006). In case of non-compliance so far, it is the sole responsibility to pay the entire contribution ( Employers + Employees) plus damages and penalties as may be determined by ESIC.
3. As regards distributing the annual Bonus of Rs.20000/- as monthly payment so as to avoid coverage, if the nomenclature of the payment is not bonus but fixed min. performance incentive say. Rs 1600 pm and actually paid in the monthly payslip, the total pay will cross Rs.10000/- and hence it would not warrant ESI contribution. But it must be actual payment shown in the payslip and preferrably not a varied amount.
4. The Employer is albeit advised to immediately register with ESIC for getting the Code No. without loss of time based on the total no. of employees even if no contribution is payable or contribution is payable only in r/o very few, say 3 or 4.
Mr. JS. Malik has given good advise.
A.Irudayam, M.A., M.B.A., LL.B.
Advocate and HR Consultant
+919940686632
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