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Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana- Procedure |
The E.S.I. Corporation has decided to provide Unemployment Allowance to the Insured Persons who have been rendered unemployed involuntarily due to closure of the factory/establishment retrenchment or permanent invalidity arising out of non-employment injury. The scheme has been named as “Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan andhi Shramik Kalyan yojana”. It shall apply to an Insured Person who becomes unemployed on or after 1ST April, 2005.
Kinds of unemployment covered under the Scheme
Unemployment which arises due to following reasons shall be covered under the Scheme:-
a) Retrenchment as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
b) Closure of the factory/ establishment as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
c) Permanent invalidity not less than 50% arising out of non-employment injury. The invalidity should be certified by a Medical Board constituted by the Central or State Government.
Eligibility Conditions
a) The applicant should have been an Insured Person under the ESI Act on the date of loss of insured employment on account of retrenchment, closure of the factory/establishment or permanent invalidity arising out of non-employment injury, as defined above.
b) Contribution in respect of him/her should have been paid/ payable for a minimum period of three years (w.e.f 11.09.2009) prior to the loss of employment. The duration of a year in this context, would mean a period of 156 days or more. An Insured person who has lost employment and in respect of whom the contribution was paid/ payable for 156 days or more in any two consecutive contribution periods in this reckoning will be deemed as having worked for one full year. Similarly, those who have paid contribution for 78 days or more in a contribution period will be deemed as having served for a one year.
c) The period of service of an Insured Person need not be continuous with one employer. The Insured Person shall be entitled to this allowance irrespective of the fact whether part of his/ her services as employee was rendered in the insurable employment with any other employer in the same or in any other region.
d) The Insured Person need not satisfy any qualifying conditions afresh for claiming unemployment allowance for any subsequent spells provided to him/her but he/she should be an Insured Person on the subsequent dates of unemployment. The unemployment allowance in the subsequent spells shall be at the same rate as has already been decided/paid.
e) As specified in Section 65 of the Act, an Insured Person shall not be entitled to any other cash benefit and the Unemployment Allowance simultaneously for the same period. However, he/she may opt for either of the two, i.e., cash benefit or unemployment allowance. The term ‘cash benefit’ excludes periodical payments of permanent Disablement Benefit under ESI Act and Regulations.
f) As specified under section 61 of the ESI Act, an Insured Person who is in receipt of unemployment allowance shall not be entitled to receive any similar benefit admissible under the provisions of any other enactment.
g) There will be one month waiting period after the retrenchment. Disqualification/ termination of unemployment allowance.
Unemployment allowance shall not be admissible in the following circumstances:
- During lock out.
- Lay off/temporary closure of factory/estt.
- Strike resorted to by the employees.
- Voluntary abandonment of employment/ voluntary retirement/ premature retirement.
- Less than three years contributory service.
- On attaining the age of superannuation or 60(sixty) years whichever is earlier.
- Convicted (i.e. punished for false statement) under the provisions of section 84 of the ESI Act read with Rule 62 of the ESI (Central) Rules, 1950.
- On being re-employed elsewhere during the period he/she is in receipt of unemployment allowance.
- Dismissal/termination under disciplinary action.
- On death of Insured Person.
Rate of Unemployment Allowance
The rate of Unemployment Allowance in respect of a person who becomes unemployed shall be calculated on the basis of average daily wage during the four contribution periods preceding the date of unemployment. The daily rate of unemployment allowance shall be same as Standard Benefit as specified in the table of Standard Benefit under Rule 54 of ESI (central) Rules 1950 corresponding to the average daily wage so arrived.
Duration of allowance.
The maximum duration, for which an Insured Person shall be eligible to draw the unemployment allowance during his/her entire life time, would be admissible for a period less than one month at a time. In case the beneficiary gets gainful employment subsequently, he/she can avail the balance allowance in case the contingency so arises but he/she should again be Insured Person to be eligible for unemployment allowance for subsequent spells.
Medical Care
The Insured Person eligible for unemployment allowance under the scheme shall also be entitled to medical care for himself/herself and his/her family from the ESI Dispensaries/ESI Hospitals/ IMPs Clinics for a period of 6 months from the date of unemployment or till the end of benefit period corresponding to contribution period before unemployment, whichever is later.
In the event of death of the Insured Person on any date prior to the expiry of 6 months period of unemployment allowance, the family of the deceased Insured Person shall continue to be entitled to medical care for 6 months as the case would have been, had the Insured Person remained alive.
Medical care under this scheme shall, however, be restricted to only for the first spell of unemployment.
Submission of claim for Unemployment Allowance
The Claim for Unemployment Allowance shall be submitted by the claimant at any time but not later than three months from the date of retrenchment/ unemployment to the appropriate Branch Office in prescribed form (UA-1) supported by the documentary evidence (in Form UA-2) proving his/her retrenchment/ unemployment/ invalidity. This certificate is to be issued by inspector of factories/ Assistant/ Dy. Labour Commissioner/Workmen Compensation Commissioner or any other authority specified in this regard. Certificate of Invalidity will be issued by the Medical Board constituted by the Central/State Govt.
The Branch Office will furnish information to Regional Office/Sub-Regional Office/Divisional Office where the case will be examined thoroughly and after ascertaining all the facts, the regional Office/Sub-Regional Office/ Divisional Office will communicate its decision to the Insured Person & the Branch Manager not later than one month from the date of receipt of claim from retrenched /unemployed Insured Person.
The payment of unemployment allowance will be made on monthly basis on receipt of Claim Form in Form UA-9. For this purpose ‘month’ means a period of 30 days.
On receipt of sanction from Regional Office/ Sub-Regional Office/Divisional Office, the Branch Manager shall simultaneously communicate to the concerned IMO In charge to provide Medical facilities to Insured Person and his/her family.
Mode of Payment
The unemployment allowance shall be paid/payable by Branch Office to Insured Person by Account Payee cheque only. In the event of death of insured Person, the amount of unemployment allowance shall be paid/payable up to and including the date of death of Insured Person, to his /her nominee/legal heir. |
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