1. Short title extent commencement and application.
(1) This Act may be called the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of
Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 .
(2) It extends to the whole of India.
(3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of March, 1996 .
(4) It applies to every establishment which employs, or had employed on any day of the
preceding twelve months, ten or more buildings workers in any building or other
construction work.
Explanation.- For the purposes of this sub- section, the buildings workers employed in
different relays in a day either by the employer or the contractor shall be taken into
account in computing the number of buildings workers employed in the establishment.
2. Definitions.
(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) " appropriate Government" means,-
(i) in relation to an establishment (which employs building workers either directly or
through a contractor) in respect of which the appropriate Government under the
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947 ), is the Central Government, the Central
Government;
(ii) in relation to any such establishment, being a public sector undertaking, as the
Central Government may by notification specify which employs building workers either
directly or through a contractor, the Central Government; Explanation.- For the
purposes of sub- clause (ii)," public sector undertaking" means any corporation
established by or under any Central, State or Provincial Act or a Government company
as defined in section 617 of the Companies Act 1956 (1 of 1956 ), which is owned,
controlled or managed by the Central Government;
(iii) in relation to any other establishment which employs building workers either
directly or through a contractor, the Government of the State in which that other
establishment is situate;
(b) " beneficiary" means a building worker registered under section 12;
(c) " Board" means a Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board
constituted under sub- section (1) of section 18;
(d) " building or other construction work" means the construction, alteration, repairs,
maintenance or demolition, of or, in relation to, buildings, streets, roads, railways,
tramways, airfields, irrigation, drainage, embankment and navigation works, flood
control works (including storm water drainage works), generation, transmission and
distribution of power, water works (including channels for distribution of water), oil and
gas installations, electric lines, wireless, radio, television, telephone, telegraph and
overseas communications, dams, canals, reservoirs, watercourses, tunnels, bridges,
viaducts, aqueducts, pipelines, towers, cooling towers, transmission towers and such
other work as may be specified in this behalf by the appropriate Government, by
notification but does not include any building or other construction work to which the
provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948 ), or the Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952 ),
apply;
(e) " building worker" means a person who is employed to do any skilled, semi- skilled
or unskilled, manual, supervisory, technical or clerical work for hire or reward, whether
the terms of employment be expressed or implied, in connection with any building or
other construction work but does not include any such person-
(i) who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity; or
(ii) who, being employed in a supervisory capacity, draws wages exceeding one thousand
six hundred rupees per mensem or exercises, either by the nature of the duties attached
to the office or by reason of the powers vested in him, functions mainly of a managerial
nature;
(f) " Chief Inspector" means the Chief Inspector of Inspection of Building and
Construction appointed under sub- section (2) of section 42;
(g) " contractor" means a person who undertakes to produce a given result for any
establishment, other than a mere supply of goods or articles of manufacture, by the
employment of buildings workers or who supplies buildings workers for any work of the
establishment; and includes a sub- contractor;
(h) " Director- General" means the Director- General of Inspection appointed under
sub- section (1) of section 42;
(i) " employer", in relation to an establishment, means the owner thereof, and includes,-
(i) in relation to A building or other construction work carried on by or under the
authority of any department of the Government, directly without any contractor, the
authority specified in this behalf, or where no authority is specified, the head of the
department;
(ii) in relation to a building or other construction work carried on by or on behalf of a
local authority or other establishment directly without any contractor, the chief
executive officer of that authority or establishment;
(iii) in relation to a building or other construction work carried on by or through a
contractor, or by the employment of building workers supplied by a contractor, the
contractor,
(j) " establishment" means any establishment belonging to, or under the control of,
Government, any body corporate or firm, an individual or association or other body of
individuals which or who employs building workers in any building or other
construction work; and includes an establishment belonging to a contractor, but does
not include an individual who employs such workers in any building or construction
work in relation to his own residence the total cost of such construction not being more
than rupees ten lakhs;
(k) " Fund" means the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Fund of a
Board constituted under sub- section (1) of section 24;
(l) " notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(m) " prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act by the Central
Government or, as the case may be, the State Government;
(n) " wages" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (vi) of section 2 of
the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (4 of 1936 ).
(2) Any reference in this Act to any law which is not in force in any area shall, in relation
to that area, be construed as a reference to the corresponding law, if any, in force in that
area.