According to the Labor Code 2006 employers are required to provide compensation to workers who suffer injuries, disability or death in the course of employment. The amount of compensation is based on the severity of the injury or disability, the worker's age and earning capacity, and other relevant factors. The Act also provides for compensation for the dependents of workers who die as a result of work-related accidents or occupational diseases.
Employers are required to maintain adequate insurance coverage to meet their liability for compensation claims. In cases where employers fail to provide compensation, workers can file a claim with the Labor Court or seek legal recourse through other channels.
Broadly discussion :
(1) If personal injury is caused to a worker by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, his employer shall be liable to pay compensation in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.(2) The employer shall not be liable to pay compensation–
(a) in respect of any injury which does not result in the total or partial disablement of the worker for a period exceeding three days;
(b) in respect of any injury, not resulting in death, caused by an accident which indirectly attributable to–
(i) the worker having been at the time thereof under the influence of drink or drugs, or
(ii) the wilful disobedience of the worker to an order expressly given, or to a rule expressly framed, for the purpose of securing the safety of worker, or
(iii) the wilful removal or disregard by the worker of any safety guard or other device which he knew to have been provided for the purpose of securing the safety or worker. :
(3) If–
(a) worker employed in any employment specified in part–A of the third Schedule, attacked with any disease specified therein as an occupational disease peculiar to that of employment, or
(b) a worker, whilst in the service of an employer in whose service he has been employed for a continuous period of not less than six months in any employment specified in part– B of the Third schedule, contracts any disease specified therein as an occupational disease peculiar to that employment, the contracting of the disease shall be deemed to be an injury by accident within the meaning of this section, and, unless the employer proves the contrary, the accident shall be deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of the employment.
Explanation : For the purposes of this sub–section, a period of service shall be deemed to be continuous which has not included a period of service under any other employer in the same kind of employment.
(4) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, add any description of employment to the employment's specified in the Third Schedule and shall specify in the case of the employment's so added the diseases which shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to be occupational diseases peculiar to these employment's respectively, and the provision of sub–section
(3) shall there upon apply as if such diseases had been declared by this chapter to be occupational diseases peculiar to those employment's.
(5) Save as provided by sub–section (3) and (4), no compensation shall be payable to a worker in respect of any disease unless the disease is directly attributable to a specific injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment.
(6) Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to confer any right to compensation on a worker in respect of any injury if he has instituted in a Civil court a suit for damages in respect of the injury against the employer or any other person;
(7) No suit for damages shall be maintainable by a worker in any court of law in respect of any injury–
(a) if he has instituted a claim to compensation in respect of the injury before a labour court; or
(b) if an agreement has been come to between the worker and his employer providing for the payment of compensation in respect of the injury in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.
(8) For the purposes of this chapter, 'worker' means any person employed by the employer directly or through contractors who is–
(a) the railway servant as defined in section 3 of the railways Act, 1890 (IX of 1890), who is not employed in any administrative, district or sub–divisional office of the railway and not employed in any such capacity as is specified in the Fourth Schedule, or
(b) employed in any such capacity as is specified in the Fourth Schedule, whether the contract of employment is expressed or implied, oral or in writing; and any reference to a worker who has been injured shall, where the worker is dead, include a reference to his dependents or any of them.
Explanation– The exercise and performance of the powers and duties of a local authority or of any department acting on behalf of the government shall, for the purposes of this chapter, unless a contrary intention appears, be deemed to be the trade or business or such authority or department.