West Bengal Employees' Payment of Compulsory Gratuity Act, 1971
No: 7 Dated: Aug, 28 1971
THE WEST BENGAL EMPLOYEES' PAYMENT OF COMPULSORW GRATUITY ACT, 1971
No 7 or 1971
An Act to provide for a uniform scheme of retirement benefit for employees engaged in factories, plantations or shops and establishments and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the West Bengal State Legislature (Delegation of Powers) Act 1971 the President is pleased to enact as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be caked the West Bengal Employecs' Payment of Compulsory Gratuity Act, 1971.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of West Bengal.
(3) It shall apply to—
(a) any factory as defined in clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948;
(b) any plantation as defined in clause (f) of section 2 of the Plantations Labour Act 1951;
(c) any shop or establishment as defined in the West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963 in which ten or more persons are employed,
2. Definition:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) "Collector" means the Collector of the district in which the factory, plantation, shop or establishment is situated and in the case of a factory, plantation, shop or establishment situated in Calcutta means the Collector of the district of 24-Parganis
Explanation—For the purposes of this Act, "Calcutta" means the town of Calcutta as defined in the Calcutta Police Act, 1866, and includes the suburbs of the town of Calcutta as defined by notification made unser section I of the Culcutta suburban Police Act, 1866
(b) "completed year of service" means continuous service for one year ;
(c) "continuous service" means uninterrupted service and includes service which is interrupted by sickness, accident, leave, strike which is not illegal or a lock o'ut or cessation of work not due to any fault of the employee concerned ;
(d) "controlling authority" means an authority appointed, by the State Government under section 3 ;
(e) "employee" means any person (other than an apprentice) employed on wages, not exceeding rupees seven hundred and fifty per mensem, in any factory, plantation, shop or establishment to do any skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled manual, supervisory, technical or clerical work, whether the terms of such employment are express or implied, but does not include any such person who is employed in a managerial or administrative capacity, or who holds a civil post under the Central, or State Government, or who is subject to the Air Force Act 1950, the Army Act, 1950, or the Navy Act, 1957
(f) "employer" means—
(i) in relation to any factory, plantation, shop or establishment which is owned or managed by the Central or the State Government, a person' or authority appointed by such Government for the supervision and control of employees or where no person or authority has been so appointed, the head of the Ministry or the Department concerned ;
(ii) in relation to any factory, plantation, shop or establishment owned or managed by any local authority, the person appointed by such authority for the supervision and control of employees or where no person has been so appointed, the chief executive officer of the local authority ;
(iii) in any other case, the person, who or the authority which has the ultimate control over the affairs of the factory, plantation, shop or establishment and where the said affairs are entrusted to any other person whether called a manager, managing director_ managing agent, or by any other name, such person ;
(g) "family", in relation to an employee, shall be deemed to consist of—
(i) in the case of a male employee, himself, his wife, his children, whether married or unmarried, his dependent parents and the widow and children ;
(ii) in the case of a female employee, herself, her husband, her children, whether married or unmarried, her dependent parents and the dependent parents of her husband and the widow and children of her predeceased son, if any:
Provided that if a female employee, by a notice in writing to the controlling authority, expresses her desire to exclude her husband from her family, the husband and his dependent parents shall no longer be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to be included in the family of such female employee unless the said notice is subsequently withdrawn by such female employee.
Explanation—In either of the above two cases if the child of an employee has been adopted by another person and if under the personal law of the adopter, adoption is legally recognized, such child shall be considered as excluded from the family of the employee ;
(h) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette ;
(i) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act ;
(1) "retirement" means termination of the service of an employee for any cause, but does not include superannuation ;
(k) "superannuation" means the termination of the service of an employee by the e employer,—
(i) when the employee attains such age as is fixed in the contract or conditions of service as the age of superannuation ; and
(ii) in any other case, when the employee attains the age of fifty-eight years ;
(l) "wages" means all emoluments which are earned by an employee while on duty or on leave in accordance with the terms and conditions of his employment and which are paid or are payable to him in cash and includes dearness allowance but does not include any bonus, commission, house rent allowance, overtime wages and night allowance:
3. Controlling authority:- The State Government may, by notification, appoint any officer, not below the rank of a Deputy Labour Commissioner, to be a controlling authority who shall be responsible for the administration of this Act and different controlling authorities may be appointed for different areas.