The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 is Social Security legislation that provides

The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 is Social Security legislation that provides for medical care and cash benefit within the contingencies of illness, maternity, unfitness, and death because of employment injury to staff. An announcement indicating the broad details of varied health insurance-related advantages provided under the Act is at Annexure-I.

1. Coverage

The Act contains an enabling provision under which the "appropriate government" is empowered to increase the provisions of the Act to other classes of institutions - industrial, commercial, agricultural, or otherwise. Under these provisions, the State Governments have extended the provisions of the Act to shops, hotels, restaurants, cinemas in conjunction with preview theatres, road motor transport undertakings, and newspaper institutions, educational and medical institutions using twenty or more employees. Seventeen States Governments have reduced the threshold of coverage of shops and other institutions to ten or more persons. The staff of factories and institutions coated under the Act drawing monthly wages up to Rs. 15,000/- per month and 25,000 /- per month for physically challenged employees’ w.e.f. 01.04.2008 are coated under the scheme. To encourage employers to interact with physically challenged persons, Govt. of India totally bears the employers’ contribution for three years. As on 31.03.2011, the scheme applied to 4.43 lakhs employers using 1.55 crore insured persons at 790 centers.

2. Administration

The Hqrs. Of the ESI Corporation is found at the city and has sixty-two field offices that include twenty-three

Regional workplace, twenty-eight Sub-Regional workplace, and 6 Divisional workplaces, and a pair of Camp workplace three Liaison workplace throughout the country. Besides, there are 620 Branch Offices and a hundred and eighty Pay Offices for the administration of cash advantages to Insured Persons. For scrutiny and coverage of the latest factories/Establishment, 374 Inspection Offices additionally originated across the Country.

3. Finance

The ESI scheme is financed primarily by contributions from employers and staff. The percentage of contribution by the employer is 4.75% of the wages payable to employees. The employees’ contribution is at the rate of 1.75% of the wages due to a worker. The State Government’s share of 2 expenditure on the provision of medical care is to the extent of 12.5%. The maximum sharable amount is subject to the ceiling advised by the Corporation from time to time. Expenditure on the far side the prescribed ceiling is solely borne by the State Govts.

4. Absolving of liability beneath alternative enactments

Employers coming under the act, are absolved of their liability under the

Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923, and the Maternity profit Act, 1961, as this Social Security provisions become the responsibility of the ESI scheme.

5. A way for exemption from the operation of the ACT

An “appropriate government” might grant or renew exemption under Section eighty-seven of the Act in respect of a Factory/Establishment or category of factories or institutions in any mere space if the staff in such factory/establishment are in receipt of advantages considerably similar or superior to the advantages provided under the Act for a quantity not extraordinary one year at a time to need result exclusively prospectively. Only if an application for renewal shall be created 3 months before the date of expiry of the exemption amount and a call on identical shall be taken by the acceptable Government within 2 months of receipt of such application.

As per provisions of the Act, no exemption shall be granted unless a reasonable chance is given to the Corporation to form any illustration, and also the same is taken into account by the acceptable Govt.

The “appropriate government” can also grant an exemption to any individual or category of persons employed in a factory/establishment or category of factories/establishments under Section eighty-eight of the Act.

Such exemption is principally granted to staff or category of staff who stay away from their Hqrs. For over seven months in an exceedingly year and people who are posted in non-implemented areas.