Casual and contractual employees of municipal corporations in the country would be covered under the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Act, 1948, Union Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said on Thursday.
The Minister said the ESI Corporation (ESIC) had been directed to take up the matter with States and Union Territories as they were the appropriate authority under the Act to issue a notification extending coverage to casual and contractual staff of municipal bodies. For Delhi, as the Central government was the appropriate government under the Act, the Labour Ministry issued the notification on Monday, he said.
Mr. Gangwar said municipal bodies tend to employ a “large number of casual and contractual workers”, who are left out of the social security net as they are not regular employees. He said the extension of ESI benefits would help in betterment of these workers who are a vulnerable lot.
“Once notifications for ESI coverage are issued by the respective States/ UTs, the casual and contractual workers working with municipal bodies will be able to avail the full gamut of benefits available under the ESI Act such as sickness benefit, maternity benefit, disablement benefit, dependent’s benefit, funeral expenses etc. In addition and importantly, these workers will be eligible to avail medical services through vast network of ESI facilities i.e. 160 hospitals and over 1500 dispensaries all over the country,” a Ministry statement said.
