I have said in general sense that establishments employing 20 ormore employees are covered under ESI Act. however Naresh Gadde has correctly stated that establsishments employing 10 or more are covered under ESI Act. Thanks Naresh for this. In the light of this post by Mr.Naresh, I would like to put the issue of coverage under ESI Act in a more proper perspective as under.
After the amendment of ESI Act in 2010, factories employing 10 or more persons are covered now and in so far as the establishments ther than factories are concerned, the Centarl government or the State Government can cover them by way of notification in which the minimum number of employees required for coverage under the Act is stipulated.Thus so far as the establishments other than factories are concerned, they need to employ 20 or more persons to be covered under ESI Act. However as far as my knowledge goes, the Central Government and the Government of GUjarat issued notifications covering establsihments other than factories also in NCR and in Gujrat respectively even if they employ 10 or more persons now instead of the previous 20 or more persons. I do not know whether other State governments also followed this by issuing similar notifications.
Others may chip in with contributions on this.
B.Saikumar
Mumbai