Established under Clause 13 of Bonus Act 1974, the National Labour Welfare Fund has sufficient deposits to carry out various projects but the managing committee is not serious on the issue, said director at the Department of Labour Barun Kumar Jha. “Trade unions and employers are concentrating in the Social Security Fund, and are not very keen on the welfare fund,” he said, “It is also because it doesn’t have a wider participation from all private sector enterprises.” 

Only companies that provide bonus to their workers participate in the fund. According to the Bonus Act, profit making companies should deposit 30 per cent of the residuary amount after the distribution of bonus to employees in the fund. 

“We have a major participation of financial institutions and multinational companies,” he said. Participants are still making huge profits, so they are not interested in it, Jha added. 

Bonus Act has set some criteria for bonus according to the salary of employees. According to law, employees earning up to Rs 5,000 monthly can get a bonus equal to six months salary. Employees earning Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 can get a bonus equal to four months salary and those earning more than Rs 15,000 can get a bonus equal to three months salary. 

“We have a tripartite committee — representatives from trade unions, employers and the government — to operate the fund but nobody is thinking about utilising it for the welfare of workers,” he said. The department is planning to start some welfare work in current fiscal. “We want to start at least one programme this year,” he said.