How Can I Make My Compliance Awareness Presentation More Engaging for Engineering Staff?

Dear fellow members, I am working in an engineering company that undertakes municipal and industrial turnkey projects. We used to subcontract many jobs to various contractors (civil, mechanical, electrical, fabrication, manpower, landscaping, housekeeping, etc.).

Presentation on Compliance Awareness

To create awareness among our engineering/project personnel, I have prepared a presentation. The data was taken from various related Acts and their amendments. Some data was sourced from documents shared by experienced members in this forum. To make it more presentable and understandable to our engineering staff, I have slightly modified the language and format.

Correlation of Compliance Levels

Furthermore, to correlate the compliance level and coverage of various Acts in our company, I have separately prepared slides so that individuals can understand and connect those compliances/Acts in the current scenario. However, in this presentation, I have excluded those slides.

Please review the presentation and the Q&A session. Kindly suggest your views and ideas to make it more engaging.

Regards

Suggestions for the Presentation

After going through the presentation, I have the following suggestions.

1. There have been interpretations by various courts that 4 years and 240 days would qualify for gratuity. However, when we refer to the Gratuity Act, you cannot state that 4 years and 240 days would qualify for gratuity.

2. Maternity leave is still 12 weeks only, and there has been no change in the Maternity Benefit Act. Similarly, there is no restriction that it is available only for two childbirths. The Act is yet to cover a commissioning mother or leave for adopting. Furthermore, there has been no provision under the present Act that makes it mandatory to have a creche in the establishment.

3. PF is contributed based on Basic and Dearness allowance. The definition of basic wages is very clearly outlined in the Act as wages that include all emoluments other than HRA.

4. I doubt if the pension formula has been changed. Please verify.

Certainly, I appreciate Pan Singh for such a wonderful presentation.

Regards,
Madhu T.K

Thank you a lot for your valued suggestions on the matter. However, please note my clarification on the suggestions:

1. I was unaware of the court interpretations regarding 4 years and 240 days. I will change this to 5 years only.

2. The formal notification has been issued regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2016. All my points are covered in the notification.

3. The basic salary (especially for PF) has been a matter of discussion for a long time. So I am not going deep into it. However, I will consider that our company pays as basic (being higher than minimum wages) and we pay our subcontracting personnel as specified in the minimum wages of the respective state.

4. In connection to the pension formula, there are different formulas for service prior to 16th Nov 1995. But for employees who are covered after the pension scheme, this formula is correct. However, under THE EMPLOYEES' PENSION SCHEME, 1995, the "pensionable salary" is defined as "12 months preceding the date of exit." But in many HR posts, I have seen the formula as "60 months preceding the date of exit." I am confused about that. But finally, I have considered the 12 months mentioned in the Act.

Regards

Maternity Benefit Act and Other Proposals

It is true that a notification to amend the Maternity Benefit Act has been issued, but no further action has taken place. Therefore, the old system of 12 weeks' leave remains the benefit available. Similarly, other proposals like adoption, surrogacy, commissioning mother, creche, etc., are still on paper.

PF Qualifying Salary Discussion

The issue of PF qualifying salary has been a matter of discussion even by various courts. But one thing is very clear. If you see the Act, you will find that basic wages encompass all sums, and when we talk about contribution, we find that it is payable on basic salary (meaning all amounts paid as per terms of employment except HRA) and dearness allowance. That means it is not payable just on a salary that the employer fixes as the Basic salary for HIS convenience.

Pension Calculation Changes

With regard to pension calculation, since the pension qualifying salary has become Rs. 15,000, a change has been made because it is not flat since the 16th of November 1995. But for the period from which the new ceiling of Rs. 15,000 has been fixed, it is flat, and for the period prior to that until the 15th of November 1995, it is pro-rata. For the past service, again, some fixed amount based on the salary. That means the benefit of an increased salary for pension purposes will not be available to those who have a very short period of service to retire, although for a newcomer with an age of say 20 or 22, the benefit is good. I am not sure, but you may check that.

Pension Qualifying Salary and PF Contribution

One more thing is that the pension qualifying salary is not subject to a maximum of Rs. 15,000, but it can be the same salary on which PF is contributed by the employer. It should be noted that there is no requirement that you cannot contribute PF on a salary higher than Rs. 15,000, but you can do it. That means if your salary is, say, Rs. 50,000, the employer can contribute 12% of Rs. 50,000 as PF. Normally, the practice is that in such cases also, the Pension Fund contribution would be limited to 8.33% of Rs. 15,000. This was regulated by the EPFO through an administrative ruling, but the Supreme Court has overturned it and ruled that if the employees wish to get a higher contribution, the employer can contribute 8.33% on the total PF qualifying salary towards the pension fund. The only thing is that in such cases, the employer's contribution towards PF will be very less. But at the same time, the employee will get a higher amount as a pension since the pension qualifying salary is higher.

Abbas may be able to shed some light on this issue. Please, Abbas.

Regards, Madhu.T.K

Please find the attached verdict from the High Court of Kerala. The Supreme Court verdict in which the EPFO's appeal was dismissed is not available with me right now. Please bear with me.

Madhu.T.K

Dear Mr. PS Dangwal Ji,

It was really nice to see your presentation, and I appreciate the efforts you put into it. However, I kindly request you to look into the latest amendments in the following acts:
1) ESI Act,
2) PF Act,
3) Maternity Benefits Act.

Creating an updated presentation incorporating these amendments would be more beneficial for the budding HR officers/executives in various private companies.

Thanks and regards.