Saturday 9 February 2013

Gratuity is kidnapper's right !!!


  In a very recent judgement in Vithal Rangnath Darekar Vs New India Insurance Company Ltd [2012 LLR 1027], the Bombay High Court has ruled that the right to receive gratuity is a statutory right and the gratuity cannot be forfeited due to conviction by criminal court for an offence (ie, kidnapping a girl) since such act does not come under purview of section 4(6)(b) of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.

Section 4(6)(b) deals with forfeiture of gratuity and it reads as follows: 

“The gratuity payable to an employee may be wholly or partially forfeited -

(i) if the services of such employee have been terminated for his riotous or disorderly conduct or any other act of violence on his part, or

(ii) if the services of such employee have been terminated for any act which constitutes an offence involving moral turpitude, provided that such offence is committed by him in the course of his employment.”

In the instant case, the petitioner was a sub staff of the respondent company and he was convicted for an offense of kidnapping a girl under section 363 and 344 of Indian Penal Code, directing to undergo rigorous imprisonment for four years together with fine. On the ground of his conviction by criminal court his services were terminated by the employer. He had rendered a service of 19 years and 2 months. He moved an application for gratuity before the Controlling Authority which, in turn, was rejected on the ground that the applicant has been convicted for an offence involving moral turpitude. He then challenged the decision before the High Court.

The High Court observed that the act of kidnapping a girl has nothing to do with the act of employment. The expression in section 4(6)(b)(ii) clearly suggests that such act involving moral turpitude must be caused in the ‘course of employment’. An employee is acting in the course of employment only when he is doing something in discharge of a duty imposed upon him by his contract of service. 

Friday 9 November 2012

West Bengal shop and establishment act 1963

Title, Extent, Commencement & Application

  • The Act is called the West Bengal Shops & Establishments Act 1963
  • It extends to whole of West Bengal
  • Will come into force on such dates as notified
  • Shall apply to areas and classes of shops and establishments as notified


Definitions-I

  • Shops means any premises for the wholesale or retail sale of commodities and services
  • Establishment means commercial establishment or an establishment for public entertainment or amusement
  • Employer means a person owning or having charge of a establishment and includes an agent or a manager
Definitions- II

  • Registering Authority means Chief Inspector or any other person appointed in this behalf
  • Person employed means a person employed but does not include owner or relatives of owner
  • Wages means wages as defined in the Payment of Wages Act 1936
  • Shop-keeper means a person owning or having charge of a shop and includes an agent or a manager
Shall not apply to

  • Offices of Central or State govt
  • Any railway service, airways service, water transport service, tramways or motor service, public conservancy or sanitation, telegraph and telephone services, undertaking supplying power, light or water
  • Institutions for the treatment of sick, infirm, destitute or mentally unfit
  • Shops or stalls at public fair
  • Stalls or refreshment rooms at railway stations, docks or airports
Exemptions

  • State Govt may exempt shops or establishments generally or on such occasions in such areas for such period as may be specified in the notification
  • Any class or classes of persons employed in shops or establishments in a managerial capacity, traveller, canvasser, messenger, watchman or caretaker or exclusively in connection with customs examinations
Holidays

  • Every shop or commercial establishment shall remain closed on and every person employed shall be allowed holiday at least one day and a half day next preceding or following such day
  • No deduction from wages on account of holiday allowed







Hours of Work-Shop

  • Opening not earlier than 8 a.m. and closing not later than 8 p.m.
  • No person employed shall work more than eight hours and half in a day and forty eight hours in a week or after the hour of closing of such shops
  • No person is allowed to work more than five and half hours at a stretch in a day unless a period of rest of at least one hour has been allowed
  • Working hours and period of rest together should not spread over ten hours and a half in a day

Hours of Work-Establishment

  • In no hotel or restaurant hours of closing be later than 11 p.m.
  • No person employed shall work more than eight hours and half in a day and forty eight hours in a week or after the hour of closing of such shops
  • No person is allowed to work more than five and half hours at a stretch in a day unless a period of rest of at least one hour has been allowed
  • Working hours and period of rest together should not spread over ten hours and a half in a day


Special provisions-young persons

  • No young person shall work more than seven hours in a day or more than forty hours in a week
  • Shall not work more than four hours in a day without a rest of at least an hour
  • Benefits available in other acts shall also be enjoyed
  • No child below 12 years is allowed to work

Women workers

  • No woman worker shall work beyond 6 p.m. in any establishment for public entertainment or amusement other than a cinema or theatre
  • In a shop or establishment beyond 8 p.m

Leave

  • Privilege leave on full pay for fourteen days for every completed year of continuous service (maximum accumulation of 28 days)
  • Sick leave on half pay for fourteen days on medical certificate (maximum accumulation to 56 days)
  • Casual leave on full pay for ten days (no accumulation allowed)
  • Women are entitled to maternity benefits

Wages for overtime

  • Shall be calculated at twice the ordinary rate of wages
  • Overtime shall include any work done on a day declared as a national holiday by notification

Payment and recovery of wages

  • Shall be paid not later than tenth day of the month immediately succeeding in respect of which wages are payable.
  • In case non-payment within the stipulated time and unauthorised deductions, such a person can make an application to the appropriate authority within six months
  • The authority called referee after hearing both parties and making such further enquiry can issue direction to pay back wages in case of non-payment together with compensation not exceeding ten times the amount claimed in case of deductions and not exceeding ten rupees in case of non-payment
  • Aggrieved party may appeal before the appellate authority within thirty days on which the order was made
  • In case of non-compliance of direction, the relevant amount may be recovered by a magistrate so designated

Notice of termination of service

  • A person who has been in continuous service for not less than one year shall not be terminated without giving one month's notice in writing showing the reasons of such termination
  • The person shall have the right to appeal to such authority and within such period as may be prescribed
  • The decision of the appellate authority shall be final

Registration

  • Every shopkeeper and employer shall apply within six months of commencement to the registering authority in prescribed form and shall pay prescribed fee
  • The registering authority shall maintain a Register in prescribed form
  • Every shopkeeper and employer shall display the certificate of registration
  • In case of winding up, shopkeeper and employer shall within fifteen days inform the registering authority in prescribed form
  • A shopkeeper or employer shall apply to the registering authority in prescribed form and pay prescribed fee for renewal of the certificate of registration within thirty days after the expiry of three years from the date of issue of registration

Keeping records

  • Every shopkeeper and employer maintain and keep register of employees in prescribed manner
  • Every shopkeeper and employer shall furnish every person employed with a letter of appointment in such form as may be prescribed


Inspectors

  • The State Government may appoint inspectors for the purpose of this act
  • All inspectors shall be deemed to be public servants
  • Inspectors may enter and inspect any premise or place to enquire about the provisions of this act
  • Examine any person who is employed in the shop or establishment
  • Seize or take copies of registers, records, documents or notices

Penalty

  • A fine up to five hundred rupees for the first offence
  • In case of repeat of offence (within two years of first offence), imprisonment up to three months or fine up to one thousand rupees or with both
  • For non-maintenance of records and register and display of notice, imprisonment up to three months or fine up to one thousand rupees or with both

Appointment of Inspectors

  • Sec 19 (1): State Govt. by notification may appoint inspectors for the purposes of this Act
  • Sec 19 (2): All inspectors appointed shall be deemed to be the pubic servant within the meaning of the Sec 21 of the Indian Penal Court 1860

Supervising inspectors and Chief inspectors

  • The State Government may appoint inspectors to be Supervising Inspectors to direct and supervise the work of other inspectors
  • One of the inspectors shall be empowered by the State Government to direct and supervise the work of all other inspectors including supervising inspectors and shall be designated as the Chief Inspector

Inspection Structure


Cooperation with the inspectors

  • All orders, letters, reports and other documents issued by an inspector shall be properly preserved by the shopkeeper/employer for a period of 12 months and shall be made available for examination by the inspector
  • Any demand by an inspector for any information or production of any document relating to the working of the Act shall be complied with by the shopkeeper/employer. If not so available within fifteen days of


Displayed/Not displayed

  • Registration Certificate in Form B
  • Notice of weekly closure in Form G
  • Notice of weekly holidays in Form H

Records/Registers to be produced

  • Appointment letter in Form X
  • Attendance register in Form I
  • Pay register in Form M
  • Leave register in Form J
  • Register of Employees in Form W
  • Overtime register in Form U
  • Visit Book

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Quality Circle


Quality Circle

After second world war, most of the countries in the world had to face the problem of industrial development. Japan was worst hit and the industrial units in Japan were going from bad to worse and it was necessary for Japan to put their shattered economy back to the rails. To do so modern concept of quality control came to Japan after 1945,from USA, but it was only after 1955 that this system of management of quality control was actually implemented to the company from the bottom of the organization that could also share in the quality control function at the workshop level. Quality circle provides the employees at the bottom level to proceed towards the top level with opportunities to perform effectively and solving the daily problem of the unit.

What is Quality Circle
A group of individuals with related interests that meet at regular intervals to consider problems or other matters related to the quality of outputs of a process and to the correction of problems or to the improvement of quality. A group of employees who perform similar duties and meet at periodic intervals, often with management, to discuss work-related.
Importance of Quality Circles with in a Company to ensure quality work!

Companies specially startups are facing problem and it's a big challenge for them to ensure quality work. It's very important to motivate employees to more focus on quality as it increases profit, productivity by avoiding rework and saves time. Many companies are working to introduce quality circles within their companies.

Quality Circle: A small group of employees who meet regularly to identify, analyze, and solve product-quality and production problems and to improve general operations.
Quality circles are applicable to a wide variety of business situations and problems. They are based on two ideas: that employees can often make better suggestions for improving work processes than management; and that employees are motivated by their participation in making such improvements.
Quality Circle Benefits:
Team Spirit Development: This will eliminate inter-team conflicts and they will learn working as a team.
·         Change in the Attitude: Employees will start working on continuous improvement/ quality of work. From, 'I don't care' to 'I do care' attitude will start growing within employees
·         Self Development: This will bring out hidden potential of people at work. They get to learn additional skills too from each other
·         Improves Organizational Culture: This results in positive working environment. Also, this results total involvement of employees at all levels
·         Other Benefits: Quality circles can help a small business reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve employee morale. Other potential benefits that may be realized by a small business include greater operational efficiency and an overall better working climate. Quality circles offer a wide variety of benefits for small businesses. For example, they serve to increase management's awareness of employee ideas, as well as employee awareness of the need for innovation within the company. Finally, quality circles can improve a small business's overall competitiveness by reducing costs, improving quality, and promoting innovation.

A Quality Circle is a volunteer group composed of workers (or even students) who meet to talk about workplace improvement, and make presentations to management with their ideas, especially relating to quality of output in order to improve the performance of the organization, and motivate and enrich the work of employees. Typical topics are improving occupational safety and health, improving product design, and improvement in manufacturing process. The ideal size of a quality circle is from eight to ten members.
Quality circles have the advantage of continuity; the circle remains intact from project to project. (For a comparison to Quality Improvement Teams see Juran's Quality by Design[1]
Quality circles were first established in Japan in 1962, and Kaoru Ishikawa has been credited with their creation. The movement in Japan was coordinated by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).
The use of quality circles then spread beyond Japan. Quality circles have been implemented even in educational sectors in India and QCFI (Quality Circle Forum of India) is promoting such activities. However this was not successful in US as it turned out to be a fault finding exercise.
There are different quality circle tools, namely:
  • The Ishikawa diagram - which shows hierarchies of causes contributing to a problem
  • The Pareto Chart - which analyses different causes by frequency to illustrate the vital cause

                                                                       
Ishikawa diagrams were proposed by Kaoru Ishikawa in the 1960s, who pioneered quality management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards, and in the process became one of the founding fathers of modern management.
It was first used in the 1960s, and is considered one of the seven basic tools of quality management, along with the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, flowchart, and scatter diagram. See Quality Management Glossary. It is known as a fishbone diagram because of its shape, similar to the side view of a fish skeleton.
Mazda Motors famously used an Ishikawa diagram in the development of the Miata sports car, where the required result was "Jinba Ittai" or "Horse and Rider as One". The main causes included such aspects as "touch" and "braking" with the lesser causes including highly granular factors such as "50/50 weight distribution" and "able to rest elbow on top of driver's door". Every factor identified in the diagram was included in the final design.
http://www.pmhut.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/ishikawa-diagram.jpg
Causes
Causes in the diagram are often based on a certain set of causes, such as the 6 M's, 8 P's or 4 S's, described below. Cause-and-effect diagrams can reveal key relationships among various variables, and the possible causes provide additional insight into process behaviour.
Causes in a typical diagram are normally grouped into categories, the main ones of which are:
The 6 M's
Machine, Method, Materials, Maintenance, Man and Mother Nature (Environment) (recommended for the manufacturing industry).
Note: a more modern selection of categories used in manufacturing includes Equipment, Process, People, Materials, Environment, and Management.
The 8 P's
Price, Promotion, People, Processes, Place / Plant, Policies, Procedures, and Product (or Service) (recommended for the administration and service industries).
The 4 S's
Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills (recommended for the service industry).
Causes should be derived from brainstorming sessions. Then causes should be sorted through affinity-grouping to collect similar ideas together. These groups should then be labeled as categories of the fishbone. They will typically be one of the traditional categories mentioned above but may be something unique to your application of this tool. Causes should be specific, measurable, and controllable.

Pareto Analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for the selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It uses the Pareto Principle (also know as the 80/20 rule) the idea that by doing 20% of the work you can generate 80% of the benefit of doing the whole job. Or in terms of quality improvement, a large majority of problems (80%) are produced by a few key causes (20%). This is also known as the vital few and the trivial many.
In the late 1940s quality management guru Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. Pareto later carried out surveys on a number of other countries and found to his surprise that a similar distribution applied.
The 80/20 rule can be applied to almost anything:
  • 80% of customer complaints arise from 20% of your products or services.
  • 80% of delays in schedule arise from 20% of the possible causes of the delays.
  • 20% of your products or services account for 80% of your profit.
  • 20% of your sales-force produces 80% of your company revenues.
  • 20% of a systems defects cause 80% of its problems.
The Pareto Principle has many applications in quality control. It is the basis for the Pareto diagram, one of the key tools used in total quality control and Six Sigma.
In PMBOK Pareto ordering is used to guide corrective action and to help the project team take action to fix the problems that are causing the greatest number of defects first.


Pareto Analysis
Seven steps to identifying the important causes using Pareto Analysis [1]:
  1. Form a table listing the causes and their frequency as a percentage.
  2. Arrange the rows in the decreasing order of importance of the causes, i.e. the most important cause first.
  3. Add a cumulative percentage column to the table.
  4. Plot with causes on x-axis and cumulative percentage on y-axis.
  5. Join the above points to form a curve.
  6. Plot (on the same graph) a bar graph with causes on x-axis and percent frequency on y-axis.
  7. Draw a line at 80% on y-axis parallel to x-axis. Then drop the line at the point of intersection with the curve on x-axis. This point on the x-axis separates the important causes on the left and less important causes on the right.
Pareto Analysis Example Diagram
This is a simple example of a Pareto diagram using sample data showing the relative frequency of causes for errors on websites. It enables you to see what 20% of cases are causing 80% of the problems and where efforts should be focussed to achieve the greatest improvement.
The value of the Pareto Principle for a project manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20% of things that matter. Of the things you do during your project, only 20% are really important. Those 20% produce 80% of your results. Identify and focus on those things first, but don't totally ignore the remaining 80% of causes.


Example of quality circle
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent efforts”

Jyoti has incorporated a Quality Circle for communicating and implementing the quality philosophy and values with the help of progressive sharing and learning. The importance of quality and how to measure Quality Circle and improve the same, not only at product and process level but at each and every activity of organization is the main purpose of this Quality Circle. The Jyoti management believes to manage their 4Ms (Man, Machine, Material, Method) through 3Cs (Communication, Co-ordination and Co-operation).



The philosophy of Quality Circle preaches to attain self motivation & happiness by improving the products through quality excellence in each of the functional areas. Apart from the progressive changes in the organization, this Quality Circle is also proving fruitful by accelerating the development of individuals. This development can be seen in terms of change in attitude, self development and development of team spirit resulting in improvising the overall organizational culture. The steering committee of the quality circle formally meets once in a month and the inner circles of the same, meet twice a month with a crystal clear agenda. Involvement up to the grass root levels of the organization brings out a realistic feedback. This in turn is used to bring in improvement in all directions.