Respected Members, one of Our employee Aged 65, died on sales-duty call due to Heart-attack sadly recently; He had 2 Stents already and had other disabilties probably leading to this. While we are a small trading company with less than 10employees, i wonder if there is any HR / Legal angles related to compensation to his next of Kin. We are planning to gather a corpus of 2x of his salary plus contributions from other fellow colleagues in office, however strangely so, the deceased employee's 30yr son is now threatning legal recourse for compensation and we are not sure if it is really correct way to go. We do not wish to create a negative image and help them best we could and thus would like to get an advise from respected members
Thanks & Regards
Kunal
From India, Bangalore
Thanks & Regards
Kunal
From India, Bangalore
If the deceased employee was a heart patient, the death could be a natural death. But before going further please let us know whether the employee was covered by ESI? Whether the employee's salary was subjected to EDLI contribution (of EPF)? If the employee was under ESI scheme, the issue will be taken care of by the ESIC.
Death while on duty and during the course of employment will attract compensation under Employees Compensation Act. In respect of employees covered by ESI, the same will be taken care of by the ESIC on receipt of accident report from the employer. Since it is a case of heart attack and not a death on account of employment injury/ accident, In order to proceed on that direction, what is required is to establish that the heart attack had anything related to work. If the employee was asked to do a sales call which was very strenuous that he could not manage the stress and that resulted in hear attack, then it will fall under accident while and during the course of employment. The opposite party should prove that you had compelled the deceased to generate more sales or there was a threat of employment if he did not meet the target. All these depend on the nature of his job and the kind of relationship that existed between you and the employee. While analysing all these, the appropriate authority under the Workmen Compensation Act will certainly ask why a person aged 65 was employed? Does there exist a contract of employment? etc. Therefore, you should be prepared with all these documents.
As the dependents of the deceased has proceeded legally, you should face it legally.
From India, Kannur
4249Death while on duty and during the course of employment will attract compensation under Employees Compensation Act. In respect of employees covered by ESI, the same will be taken care of by the ESIC on receipt of accident report from the employer. Since it is a case of heart attack and not a death on account of employment injury/ accident, In order to proceed on that direction, what is required is to establish that the heart attack had anything related to work. If the employee was asked to do a sales call which was very strenuous that he could not manage the stress and that resulted in hear attack, then it will fall under accident while and during the course of employment. The opposite party should prove that you had compelled the deceased to generate more sales or there was a threat of employment if he did not meet the target. All these depend on the nature of his job and the kind of relationship that existed between you and the employee. While analysing all these, the appropriate authority under the Workmen Compensation Act will certainly ask why a person aged 65 was employed? Does there exist a contract of employment? etc. Therefore, you should be prepared with all these documents.
As the dependents of the deceased has proceeded legally, you should face it legally.
From India, Kannur
Hello Sir,
Thanks for the guidance. Appreciate it. As mentioned earlier- we are a trading company and starting small with 10x staff. We do not have ESI coverage and neither for EPF. The deceased person at our office was not under contract & he was in need of money due to financial strain and thus we paid him regular salary + Expenses despite knowing about his ill-health.
Based on your advise, we will start collecting on necesary documentation at our site too. In the meanwhile, if you could advise what could be the maximum amount that we could be liable for once this proceeds legally, it will be helpful to prepare a contigency budget.
We will also study regarding coverage for all employees under insurance/ESI schemes to reassure for future.
From India, Bangalore
Thanks for the guidance. Appreciate it. As mentioned earlier- we are a trading company and starting small with 10x staff. We do not have ESI coverage and neither for EPF. The deceased person at our office was not under contract & he was in need of money due to financial strain and thus we paid him regular salary + Expenses despite knowing about his ill-health.
Based on your advise, we will start collecting on necesary documentation at our site too. In the meanwhile, if you could advise what could be the maximum amount that we could be liable for once this proceeds legally, it will be helpful to prepare a contigency budget.
We will also study regarding coverage for all employees under insurance/ESI schemes to reassure for future.
From India, Bangalore
Since he has been employed for sales promotion activities, you cannot say that he was not an employee of your organisation. Not giving him any appointment order or engaging an employee without any legal document showing any employee- employer relationship is a non compliance and for that you should get a notice from the labour department. That is a different question. The issue here is to prove that the said employee was not under pressure to achieve his targets. If there were any mail directing the deceased to meet target with a caution or warning that he would face consequences and similar sentences, you cannot escape from the liability under the Employees Compensation Act.
Compensation would depend on the salary, age of the deceased and the relevant factor corresponding to the age. Any salary shall be capped to Rs 15000. For death while and during the course of employment, the compensation is equal to 50% of salary multiplied by the relevant age factor. For an age of 65, the compensation factor is 99.37. By multiplying it by 50% of the salary, say salary is Rs 15000 per month, then the compensation would be 99.37 X 7500 or Rs 7,45,275. Pleas check the calculation once again using the attached schedule.
From India, Kannur
Compensation would depend on the salary, age of the deceased and the relevant factor corresponding to the age. Any salary shall be capped to Rs 15000. For death while and during the course of employment, the compensation is equal to 50% of salary multiplied by the relevant age factor. For an age of 65, the compensation factor is 99.37. By multiplying it by 50% of the salary, say salary is Rs 15000 per month, then the compensation would be 99.37 X 7500 or Rs 7,45,275. Pleas check the calculation once again using the attached schedule.
From India, Kannur
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