Previous Year Question
With reference to casual workers employed in India, consider the following statements:
All casual workers are entitled to Employees’ Provident Fund coverage.
All casual workers are entitled to regular working hours and overtime payment.
The Government can, by a notification, specify that an establishment or industry shall pay wages only through its bank account.
Which of the above statements are correct?
1 and 2
2 and 3
1 and 3
1, 2 and 3
Correct Answer: D
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is correct. The definition of an “employee” under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act is not restricted to permanent employees. It may include persons employed directly or through a contractor in connection with the work of a covered establishment.
Thus, a casual or contractual worker employed in an establishment covered by the EPF law cannot be denied EPF merely because the appointment is temporary. This does not mean that every casual worker in the entire country is automatically covered; the establishment must be covered by the legislation and the worker must satisfy the applicable statutory conditions.
Statement 2 is correct. The statutory minimum-wage framework provides for a normal working day and payment at the prescribed overtime rate when an employee works beyond the stipulated hours. A casual worker cannot be denied normal working-hour protections or overtime wages merely because of the temporary nature of employment.
Work performed beyond the prescribed normal working day must therefore be compensated according to the applicable overtime provisions.
Statement 3 is correct. Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 permitted payment of wages:
in coins or currency notes;
by cheque; or
by crediting the employee’s bank account.
The amended provision empowered the appropriate Government to notify specified industrial or other establishments where wages had to be paid only by cheque or by crediting workers’ bank accounts.
Factual error in the book’s explanation: The Government’s power to require payment through bank accounts came from Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, not from an amendment to the Employees’ Provident Funds Act.