New Delhi, Jan 21 (KNN) All India Organization of Employers’ (AIOE), in a recommendation to the Labour Ministry, has urged to implement the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act 2015 prospectively from financial year 2015-16.
 
Sanjay Bhatia, President, AIOE, has submitted the recommendation to Bandaru Dattatreya Union Labour Minister. 
 
The government on January 1, 2016 had notified that the amended Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 was enforceable with effect from April 1, 2014.
 
“Besides the fact that enforcing the amended legislation with retrospective effect had never been discussed in tripartite discussion which is the cornerstone of Indian labour policy, industry is facing severe problem in implementing the amended legislation,” according to a statement.
 
Companies have closed their account books for the year 2014-2015 on March 31, 2015, setting apart the amount of bonus out of the allocable surplus as per the practice.
 
The amount so set apart is adequate and proportionate to the commitment/agreement with the unions, according to which bonus has been distributed and taxes paid. Now, re-opening the account books and enhancing the amount of bonus would upset the entire exercise, disturbing other financial commitments, the statement added.
 
While, discussing the minimum bonus and coverage, though employer representatives fully cooperate, despite having reservations on both the counts, the Government over-looked this practical difficulty in implementation, which is unjustifiable and inequitable.
 
“It is therefore, requested to enforce the amendment with prospective effort i.e. from the financial year 2015-16,” the statement added.
 
Secondly, by amending section 12 of the existing legislation, salary or wage of an employee for the purpose of calculating bonus is to be taken either Rs 7000 or the minimum wage of the scheduled employment, as fixed by the appropriate Government, whichever is higher.
 
The net impact of this amendment will be that a corporate or industry having operations in more than one state will have to distribute different amount of bonus in each state, opening a flood gate for disputes. The provision therefore, needs to be revisited, it said. (KNN Bureau)