The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act) received the assent of the President of India on 31 December 2015 and is deemed to have come into force on 01 April 2014. Some salient features of the Act are:
- The definition of “employee” has been amended to mean any person (other than an apprentice) employed on a salary/ wage not exceeding INR 21,000 (Rupees twenty one thousand) per month in any industry to do any skilled or unskilled manual, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied.
- For the purpose of calculating bonus, the salary/ wage of an employee will be considered as INR 7,000 (Rupees seven thousand) or the minimum wage for the scheduled employment, as fixed by the appropriate Government, whichever is higher, if the salary/ wage of the employee exceeds the aforesaid amounts.
- The expression “scheduled employment” means an employment specified in the schedule to the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, or any process or branch of work forming part of such employment.
The Act can be accessed at the following link: http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2016/167383.pdf