Employee State Insurance Corporation & Covid-19
INTRODUCTION
ESIC stands for Employee State Insurance Corporation was a body created by the Ministry of Labour and Employment under the ESIC Act 1948. Under this scheme for workman having salary less than Rs. 21,000/- and covered employees financially during sickness, maternity, death, disablement.
ESIC AND ITS APPLICABILITY
This scheme has benefitted a lot of employees and has benefitted them. A common man with a maximum of Rs. 21,000/- salary cannot bear the unforeseen expenses like medical, maternity, etc expenses and as they are not seasonal workers their exposure to risk during their employment is higher, the following are some of the benefits which a person get under this scheme. This scheme is a boon for the insured persons who are under the definition of employees under Section 2(9) of the ESI ACT. The main objective of this act to provide dependant members of the family with aid in case of death or injury;
- Disability Benefits:- Where an employee is disabled, and the injury is temporary in nature then his/her monthly wages are given to them and where he/she gets the monthly salary in case of temporary disability and for the remaineder of life.
- Medical Benefits:- this scheme has not limit in case of medical benefit and hence all the expense of medical area are covered under this scheme.
- Maternity Benefit: an employee who has gone under the period of labour gets 100% daily wages for 26 weeks and in case of miscarriage 6 weeks.
- Unemployment Allowance: ESI provides a monthly cash allowance for a maximum period of 24 months in case of permanent invalidity due to a non-employment injury or due to involuntary loss of employment
- Sickness Benefit: Around 70% of the daily wage of an employee is given during a medical leave for a maximum period of 91 days.
- Others:- Confinement Expenses, rehabilitation, and Funeral expenses are also included in this.
ESI REGISTRATION
Where a company is having 10 or more employee it becomes mandatory to go with the ESIC scheme. A contribution of 1.75% from the salary of the employee is made who earns less than Rs. 21,000 per month along with 4.75% is paid by the employer as well.
A company wishes to apply can apply on the ESI registration within the period of 15 days from the date it has 10 or more employees. The list of documents alongwith the procedure is mentioned below:-
- Documents:- certificate of registration in case of a private limited company, License of registration certificate, certificate of registration for production, list of employees with details with their wages, compensation, list of partner/s, directors or shareholders if any, bank statement of the company, PAN card of the company.
- Procedure:- STEP 1:- A duly filled Employer’s Registration Form -1 by the company and submitted. A PDF of the form is available in the PDF form.
STEP 2- On successful verification of application a 17 digit number is provided and after this, a company can further proceed to filing ESI.
STEP 3- Employees registered under the ESI scheme and after providing details of their family members will receive ESI card.
COVID-19 AND ESI
As per the latest notice dated 3rd June 2021 an insured person under this scheme who is registered at least 3 months before the date of diagnosis of COVID-19 leading to death. Further, an employee must have died in the course of employment, a contribution (1.75%) of 70 days have been paid or be payable during the period of a maximum of One year preceding his diagnosis.
WHO WILL RECEIVE PAYMENTS?
The periodic compensation will be received as follow:-
i) The spouse of the legitimate child adopted son (below 25 years of age), unmarried legitimate or adopted daughter.
ii) Widow mother
iii) If wholly dependent on the income of the deceased insured person then the legitimate or adopted son or daughter who has attained 25 years of age will be considered to be infirm.
iv) Where spouse, widowed mother, children are not left behind, in that case
a) Parent other than widowed mother
b) A minor illegitimate son, unmarried illegitimate daughter, or a daughter legitimate or adopted or illegitimate if married or if widowed and a minor.
c) Minor brother or an unmarried sister or a widowed sister if a minor
d) Widowed daughter in law
e )Minor child of pre-deceased daughter and no parent of the child is alive
f) Paternal grandparents is no parent of the insured person is alive.
HOW COMPENSATION WILL BE MADE
The Full rate of relief i.e 90% of the average daily wages of the deceased insured person will be paid as follow
- Spouse:- An amount equivalent to three-fifth of the full rate. Where there are two or more widows the aforesaid amount will be equally divided.
- Legitimate or Adopted son:- An amount equivalent to two-fifth of full rate until he is 25 years of age
Legitimate or Adopted son (infirm):- An amount equivalent to two-fifth of full rate until the infirmity lasts.
3. Legitimate or adopted unmarried daughter:- An amount equivalent to two-fifth of full rate until he is 25 years of age
Legitimate or Adopted daughter (infirm):- amount equivalent to two-fifth of full rate until the infirmity lasts.
4. Widowed mother – amount equivalent to two-fifth of full rate until the infirmity lasts.
5. Where the share of all the above mentioned exceed the full rate the compensation will be divided proportionately.
6. The minimum relief under this ESIC scheme shall 1800/- month and this scheme is applicable for 2 years.
DOCUMENTS TO APPLY
- Claimants have to submit form CSR-I along with COVID-19 positive report (in original or attested) and also death certificate in the nearest ESIC branch office.
- Age proof of dependants shall be given by Aadhar Card or Birth Certificate from the competent authority.
- Those deceased who were taking benefit of Maternity Benefit, extended sickness benefit, temporary disablement benefit and are short of required 70 days of contribution due to above these days, the number of days they were on above mentioned leaves will be counted prior to diagnosis of COVID-19.
- Cases where death after recovering and discharge from hospital within 30 days the case will be decided by the Regional Director/ Sub- Regional officer in-charge.
- In case the date of recovery is not certain for the want of the COVID-19 negative report, 45 days will be counted after the covid positive report and will be considered for relief.
- The Spouse of the deceased will be eligible for medical care on depositing Rs. 120/- lump-sum for a year.
REDRESSAL OF PUBLIC GRIEVANCES:
ESI Corporation has setup of Public Grievances Redressal System where any report or query will be answered. Toll-free numbers are provided below along with the redressal offices
Name of the Region | Toll-Free Helpline | |
Andhra Pradesh RO*, Hyderabad | 1800-425-2358 | |
Bihar RO, Patna | 1800-345-6190 | |
Assam RO, Guwahati | 1800-345-3627 | |
Goa RO, Panji | 1800-233-0132 | |
Chhattisgarh RO, Raipur | 1800-233-5172 | |
Gujarat RO, Ahmedabad | 1800-233-0424 | |
Haryana RO, Faridabad | RO, Faridabad | 1800-180-1475 |
SRO, Gurgaon | 1800-180-2526 | |
Jammu & Kashmir RO, Jammu | 1800-180-7029 | |
Himachal Pradesh RO, Baddi | 1800-180-2862 | |
Odisha RO, Bhubaneswar | 1800-345-6712 | |
Jharkhand RO, Ranchi | 1800-345-6532 | |
Madhya Pradesh RO, Indore | 1800-233-4414 | |
Tamil Nadu | RO, Chennai | 1800-425-7080 |
SRO, Madurai | 1800-425-2527 | |
SRO Tirunelveli | 1800-425-1505 | |
Uttarakhand RO, Dehradun | 1800-180-4161 | |
Uttar Pradesh RO, Kanpur | RO, Kanpur | 1800-180-5127 |
SRO, Noida | 1800-180-3181 | |
Maharashtra RO, Mumbai | RO, Mumbai | 1800-209-4599 |
SRO, Pune | 1800-233-4143 | |
Puducherry RO, Puducherry | 1800-425-7642 | |
Punjab SRO, Ludhiana | 1800-180-0026 | |
West Bengal | RO, Kolkata | 1800-345-4454 |
SRO, Barrackpore | 1800-345-5985 | |
Karnataka | RO, Bangalore | 1800-425-0636 |
SRO, Hubli | 1800-425-0037 | |
Rajasthan | RO, Jaipur | 1800-180-6266 |
RO, Udaipur | 1800-180-6224 |
RO-Regional Office, SRO-Sub-Regional Office
Mail and Address of the Regional Officers;
1. ESI CORPORATION,
Panchdeep Bhawan,
CIG Marg, New Delhi-110002
Website: www.esic.nic.in, www.esic.in
E-mail: jd-pghq@esic.in
Phone: 011-23234092/93/98
Fax: 011-23234537
Toll Free Helpline No.: 1800-11-2526