TechnoparkToday.com – Techies News, Jobs, Events & Lifestyle! Technopark News Jobs & Lifestyle!
“The Government of Kerala promulgated the ‘ Kerala shops and Commercial Establishment workers welfare fund Act – 2006’ to provide for the constitution of a “ fund “ to promote the welfare and to pay pension to the workers coming under the purview of the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishment Act,1960.”
Can somebody help me understand why do we have to contribute to the ‘Kerala shops and Commercial Establishment workers welfare fund’? In fact we pay all the taxes (including Rs.2500/- professional tax, – Central Govt. wants to raise professional tax from Rs.2500 to Rs.7500) but i don’t know whether even shop keepers pay any premium to this fund. I have checked with State govt employees and none of them contribute to these kinds of funds.
At first we may think this is a small amount, only Rs. 20 per month. If the employer also contributes equally then it goes to 20+20 for a single employee and if there are 1000 employees the amount goes to Rs.40,000 in a month and 40,000 x 12 = 4,80,000/- in a year!. Consider with this all the IT firms in Technopark and Cochin. The government gets crores and crores in a year from us. I have one more doubt: they have mentioned that this amount will be utilized for members for “financial assistance for marriageâ€, “payment of funeral assistance”, etc. And interestingly the amount is Rs.5000 and Rs1000 respectively. Are the members really getting any benefit out of this?
Moreover how does this benefit the IT people if they contribute this amount. Will these shop keepers (bakery, cinema theatre, phone booth, petrol bunks, courier service, etc) give a discount of 25 paisa for us? No! Right?
Why can’t the Government collect similar amounts from state govt employees? If the government announces such a decision 99% of the  Government offices will not work one more month. Every government employee irrespective of party color including politicians will start a strike against this. (I am not at all recommending trade unionism in Technopark)
It may be said that we too will benefit as we too come in the category of workers/laborers. But if we do get this benefit there may be 1001 rules saying that “your salary should not be more than 5000 per month” etc.
My understanding may be wrong, so may someone who knows more about this please clarify my doubt: why do  we (IT people) need to pay this monthly installment, and more interestingly how many of are eligible to get claims from this fund?
To know more about this fund visit the kerala government site : http://www.kerala.gov.in/keralacallaug_07/pg14-15.pdf
Well said… Great information, keep up the great work!
kerala govt is cheating us
Why the hell the kerala govt is imposing these upon IT people? we are paying the major tax portion. can this govt can get any taxes from the marchents who is selling crores in an year? never..
everytime the working categoty people only suffer. we should find a way to end this injustice.
I had the same thoughts.
Well, the reason is that all IT employees come under the shops and establishments act (The reason for this is various working hour regulations, extra time regulations etc are there for Industrial Workers)
I don’t think the Govt is going to give the money. They will impose more and more restrictions to give it to us. And maybe we have to give the dirty government officials more money as bribes to get it. And why is this made mandatory? Is there any surety that we will be around in Kerala after 3 or 5 years? So, all these money are going to be in Govt’s pocket and some politicians are going to snatch it.
yes. but one thing which i really want to know is whether its a mandatory or not? many technopark and infopark companies started deducting this amount from their employees salary even before entering their name in to this scheme. if somebody doen’t want to join there, how they can deduct the money?
The govt will not pay this amount. thats damn sure, and how many people will claim this? and thus all these money will go to someones pocket. there are some complex rules there, like you have to pay at least for the 3 years to continue this and get the benifit out of this, and when you change the company in to some other state what will happen?
So many questions are still unanswered from the side of compnay officials as well as from the govt
The companies are forced to deduct the amount from employees for one simple reason. Registration under the Kerala Shops & Estt Act is a must for all IT firms. And when a firm approaches the Labour officer for registration, they are told to enroll into the welfare Fund first!!
Thus the firm ends up paying the employee as well as Employer contribution upfront. The firm, then in turn recovers the employee share from their salary.
Whether, this scheme would really help an employee is anybody’s guess! It would have been far far better, if the Govt had brought in a salary ceilng as int he case of ESI and PF. But that way , the Govt would lose the contribution from almost all IT firms!!!
this is kerala govt polish way of begging to meet govt lavish spending
This is just the robbery. Nothing is beneficial for employees because of this. nobody is there to question this. because IT employees are not united. they doesnt have anyone to talk for them. so it is very easy to make them preys of such daylight robberies.
Had anybody actually ever tried to obtain any benefits from this fund?