Partial Disability Benefit for Construction Workers — Sikkim

What is the partial disability benefit for Sikkim construction workers?

Partial Disability Benefit is one of eight cash heads in the financial assistance schedule notified by the Sikkim Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board under the Labour Department, Government of Sikkim. It compensates a registered construction worker who is partially disabled by an accident in the course of employment.

According to Labour Department Notification No. 22/DL dated 14 June 2018, published in Sikkim Government Gazette Extraordinary No. 347 on 9 July 2018, the amount for "Partial Disability; sustained in the course of employment" is Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000 on the basis of % of disability, and it is applicable to the registered worker. The notification was issued in compliance with the scheme framed under clause (h) of sub-section (1) of Section 22 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, following decisions taken in a meeting of the Sikkim BOCW Welfare Board.

The Board itself was reconstituted on 3 December 2016 in supersession of Notification No. 19/DL dated 18 May 2013, and the notification records that the Supreme Court of India monitors implementation of the BOCW Act. The Act and the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act were implemented in Sikkim with effect from 6 September 2010.

What are the disability and accident amounts?

Alongside the notified schedule, rule 270 of the Sikkim Building and Other Construction Workers Rules, 2010 provides day-rate assistance during recovery. The Board may sanction Rs 200 for the first five days and Rs 20 per day for the remaining days, subject to a maximum of Rs 1,000, to a beneficiary hospitalised for five or more days due to an accident. The same assistance is given to a beneficiary met with an accident and put in plaster at residence. The rule also allows the Board to sanction financial assistance up to Rs 10,000 where disability results from an accident, depending on the percentage of disability, on an application in Form XXXIV. The 2018 notification raises the ceiling for partial disability to Rs 1,00,000.

The Board's 2015 list of 22 welfare schemes, Notification No. 06/DL dated 12 March 2015, includes at item 12 "Benefits for accident victims rendered physically handicapped for alternative employment" and at item 18 "Death Compensation and Permanent Disablement Compensation as approved by the Welfare Board".

Who is eligible for the partial disability benefit?

You can claim if all of these are true.

• You are registered as a beneficiary of the Sikkim BOCW Welfare Board and hold the Form XXVIII identity card issued under rule 266 of the Sikkim BOCW Rules, 2010.
• You were between 18 and 60 years of age at registration and had completed 90 days of service as a building worker in the preceding twelve months, as rule 264 requires.
• Your Rs 20 per month contribution to the Sikkim Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Fund is current. Rule 267 requires the contribution to be remitted once every three months at a bank specified by the Board in your district.
• The disability was sustained in the course of employment on a building or other construction work.
• You hold a medical certificate recording the disability and its percentage.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, in these situations.

• You are an unregistered worker. Registration with the Beneficiary Registering Officer is the gateway to every Board benefit.
• The disability arose outside employment, for example in a road accident on a rest day. The notification is specific about the disability being sustained in the course of employment.
• You have defaulted on the contribution for a continuous year, in which case rule 267(2) says you cease to be a beneficiary of the Fund. Membership may be resumed on payment of arrears with the Secretary's permission, but not more than twice.
• The injury is a minor injury with no assessed disability. That is a separate head paying a flat Rs 10,000.
• The case is one of permanent disability or death, which is paid at the higher one-time rate of Rs 1,50,000 rather than under the partial disability band.
• You are a contractor, employer or establishment. The Board's welfare schemes run to registered building workers and their dependants, not to firms.

What documents are required?

How to claim partial disability benefit in Sikkim

1. Report the accident to the establishment immediately and ask for a letter confirming your engagement and the circumstances of the accident. Where the accident is serious, get an FIR or a general diary entry recorded.
2. Get treated and obtain a medical certificate that states the nature of the injury and, critically, the percentage of disability. This figure decides where in the Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000 band the claim lands, so an incomplete certificate is the commonest cause of an under-assessed award.
3. Assemble the claim. The establishment letter, your Form XXVIII identity card, the medical certificate and, if available, the FIR or GD copy.
4. Submit the claim to the concerned District Labour Officer, and send a copy of the information to Head Quarter, Labour Department, Shram Bhawan, Gangtok, East Sikkim, exactly as the 2018 notification directs.
5. Follow up with the district office or the BOCW Nodal Officer, quoting your beneficiary registration number.

If you are not yet registered, apply first in Form XXVII to the Beneficiary Registering Officer with three small photographs, attested proof of date of birth, an employer's certificate of engagement and a registration fee of Rs 20, as rule 265 requires. A nomination should be filed in Form XXXI so that a dependant can claim if the worst happens.

Contact numbers for Sikkim construction workers

The Labour Department's BOCW welfare schemes sheet publishes these numbers:

• BOCW Nodal Officer to 70769-26998
• East to 90643-89842
• Pakyong — 90028-33969
• South to 96098-63959
• West to 95477-16798
• North to 96359-98441
• Toll free helpline for labourers to 1800-345-1474

The Labour Department headquarters is at Shram Bhawan, Sokaythang, Gangtok, telephone 03592-201474, email sikkimlabour@gmail.com.

Common reasons partial disability claims fail

• The medical certificate does not state a disability percentage, leaving the Board with no basis on which to grade the award.
• The accident is not shown to be work-related, because no establishment letter, FIR or GD entry supports it.
• Registration has lapsed through a full year of unpaid contributions.
• The claim was filed only at headquarters instead of with the District Labour Officer who is the prescribed first recipient.
• The identity card has been lost, so beneficiary status cannot be verified at the counter.

Rule 271(6) of the Sikkim BOCW Rules, 2010 gives an aggrieved claimant 60 days from receipt of the order to appeal to the Board, whose decision is final. A person refused registration as a beneficiary has a separate 30-day appeal under rule 266(2). Neither appeal carries a fee.

How to check your application status

The Sikkim BOCW Welfare Board does not run an online tracker for individual disability claims, so status has to be confirmed the same offline way the claim itself was filed.

1. Note the claim details before you follow up. Keep your beneficiary registration number, the date the claim was submitted to the District Labour Officer, and the name of the official who received it. Officials at the district office and at Shram Bhawan handle status queries by beneficiary number, not by phone number or name alone.
2. Call or visit the concerned District Labour Officer first, since that is the office the 2018 notification names as the recipient of the claim. A claim moves through district-level scrutiny before any amount is sanctioned, so the district office is best placed to say whether it is still under verification, has been forwarded to the Board, or has been sanctioned.
3. Contact the BOCW Nodal Officer for your district if the District Labour Officer's office cannot give a clear update. The Labour Department publishes separate nodal contact numbers for East, West, North, South and Pakyong districts, and for the BOCW Nodal Officer overall, precisely so beneficiaries have a named point of contact for pending claims.
4. Call the toll-free labour helpline (1800-345-1474) if you cannot reach the district or nodal contact, or if you want to lodge a complaint about a delayed claim. Have your beneficiary registration number ready when you call.
5. Escalate in writing to Labour Department headquarters at Shram Bhawan, Sokaythang, Gangtok, or by email to sikkimlabour@gmail.com, if the claim has been pending for an unreasonable period after the medical certificate and other documents were submitted. Since the 2018 notification already requires a copy of every claim to go to headquarters, the department should have a record even if the district file is delayed.
6. Ask specifically whether the disability percentage on your medical certificate has been accepted, since a large share of the processing time on this particular benefit goes into confirming that percentage against the Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000 band, rather than into general document verification.

If the claim is rejected or the sanctioned amount is disputed, remember that rule 271(6) of the Sikkim BOCW Rules, 2010 gives 60 days from receipt of the order to appeal to the Board, so status follow-up should not be delayed to the point where that appeal window is missed.