West Bengal Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1974
No: 38 Dated: Aug, 30 1974
THE WEST BENGAL LABOUR WELFARE FUND ACT, 1974.
West Bengal Act XXXVIII of 1974
An Act to provide for the constitution of a fund for promoting activities connected with the welfare of labour in West Bengal and for matters connected therewith.
Whereas it is expedient to constitute a fund for promoting activities connected with the welfare of labour in West Bengal and for matters connected therewith;
It is hereby enacted as follows :-
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1974.
(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.
(3) This section shall come into force at once and the remaining sections shall come into force on such date or dates and in such area or areas as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different sections or for different areas.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -
(1) "Board" means the West Bengal Labour Welfare Board constituted under section 4;
(2) "contribution" means the sum of money payable to the Board in accordance with the provisions of section 9;
(3) "employee" means any person who is employed for hire or reward to do any work, skilled or unskilled, manual, clerical, supervisory or technical, in an establishment , and includes a sales promotion employee but does not include any person-
(a) who is employed mainly in a managerial capacity, or
(b) who, being employed in supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding sixteen hundred rupees per mensem or exercises, either by the nature of duties attached to the office, or by reason of the powers vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial nature.
Explanation. - "Sales promotion employee" shall have the same meaning as in the Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976;
(4) "employer" means any person who employs either directly or through another person either on behalf of himself or any other person, one or more employees in an establishment and includes -
(i) in a factory, any person named under clause (f) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Factories Act, 1948, as the manager;
(ii) in any establishment, any person responsible to the owner for the supervision and control of the employees or for the payment of wages;
(5) "establishment" includes -
(i) a factory,
(ii) a tramway or motor transport undertaking, and
(iii) any commercial establishment within the meaning of clause (2) of section 2 of the West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963, which employs, or on any working day during the preceding twelve months, employed ten or more persons:
Provided that any such commercial establishment shall continue to be an establishment for the purposes of this Act notwithstanding that the was a reduction in the number of persons to less than ten at any subsequent time :
Provided further that where for a continuous period of not less than three months the number of persons employed therein has been less than ten, such commercial establishment shall cease to be an establishment for the purposes of this Act with effect from the beginning of the month following the expiry of the said period of three months, but the employer shall, within one month from the date of such cessation, intimate by registered post the fact thereof to such authority as the State Government may specify in this behalf,
(iv) any other class of establishments which the State Government may, after giving three months' notice of its intention of so doing, specify by notification in the Official Gazette,
(6) "factory" means a factory as defined in clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948;
(7) "Fund" means the Labour Welfare Fund constituted under section 3;
(8) "independent person" means a person who is not connected with the management of any establishment or who is not an employee, and includes the Welfare Commissioner or any officer of the State Government;
(9) "Inspector" means an Inspector appointed under section 16;
(10) "motor transport undertaking" means a motor transport undertaking engaged in carrying passengers or goods or both by road for hire or reward, and includes a private carrier;
(11) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(12) "unpaid accumulation" means all sums due to the employees but not actually paid to them within a period of three years from the date on which they became due whether before or after the commencement of this Act including the wages, bonus and gratuity but not including the amount of contribution, if any, paid by an employer to a provident fund established under the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952;
(13) "wages" means wages as defined in clause (vi) of section 2 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, and includes bonus payable under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965;
(14) "Welfare Commissioner" means the Welfare Commissioner appointed under section 15;
(15) "welfare of labour" includes activities mentioned in sub-section (2) of section 11.