a) Constitution of the Board: Under sub section (1) of Section 4 of the West Bengal Unorganized Sector Workers Welfare Act, 2007 a Board in the name of THE WEST BENGAL UNORGANISED SECTOR WORKERS’ WELFARE BOARD (the Board) was constituted in the year 2008 for the purpose of administering the Fund created under the Act and also for implementing the schemes introduced under the Act, or the existing schemes run under the direct financial assistance by the State Government vide Labour Department’s Notification No.895-IR Dated 26.08.2008 . The Board was further reconstituted in the year 2012 vide Labour Department’s Notification No. 200(20)-IR Dated 09.03.2012.
The Hon’ble Minister-In –Charge, Labour Department is the Chairman of the Board. The Board functions through an Executive Council set up by it from its office at 6th Floor, N.S. Buildings, Kolkata-1.
b) Power of the Board: The Board is empowered to introduce for unorganized workers:
• Any Health Insurance Scheme;
• Any Scheme for providing pension to the beneficiaries who have completed the age of 60 years and to the members of the family in case of death of the beneficiary ;
• Any Scheme for House building Loans and Advances to the Beneficiaries;
• Any Scheme to provide for Financial Assistance for Education of the children of the beneficiaries;
• Any Scheme to provide for Maternity Benefit to the female beneficiaries and
• Any Scheme to provide such other welfare measures and facilities as may be decided by the Board with approval of the State Government.
Functions of the Board:
Implementation of SASPFUW: At present the Board has been implementing the State Assisted Scheme of Provident Fund for Unorganized Workers (SASPFUW) throughout West Bengal through the Regional Labour Offices under the Labour Commissionerate. For the purpose of implementing the objects of the West Bengal Unorganized Sector Workers Welfare Act 2007, the Regional Labour Offices under the Labour Commissionerate are functioning as the Regional Offices of the Board vide Labour Department’s Memo No. 1064-IR Dated 19th November,2009.
Implementation of Health Security Scheme: The Board is also implementing the West Bengal Unorganized Sector Workers’ Health Security Scheme introduced under Labour Department’s Resolution No.34-IR Dated 05.01.2011 for the workers covered under the SASPFUW Scheme and subsequently the scheme has been amended vide Notification No.890-IR Dated 19.09.2012 . One Additional Labour Labour Commissioner functions as CEO of the Board and implements the decisions taken in Board’s meetings.
Transfer of Fund: The fund of the Board is provided by the Government of West Bengal. The fund as received from time to time from the Government is transferred electronically to all the SASPFUW Administrative Accounts opened in SBI and maintained by the Regional offices of the Board which make all kinds of payments. There are as many as 68 such Administrative Accounts throughout the State.
The Board also provides necessary infrastructure to its Regional Offices after taking decisions in its meetings and allows the CEO of the Board to spend money out of the Fund on different items.
Awareness Generation: The Board also provides fund to all RLOs for organizing awareness generation camps through its regional offices throughout the year for spot registration of beneficiaries and distribution of benefits among the workers and also to popularize the scheme SASPFUW and Health Security Scheme. Necessary advertisements ate also published in different newspapers in order to create all round awareness.