1. ' S. IMRAN SHAH (CHAIRMAN).-- The appellant has impugned the direction of the respondent for payment of contribution towards Employees' Old-Age Benefits Fund, on the pretext that the temporary workers who are engaged on daily wages basis are not covered under the Employees'
2. Old-Age Benefits Act, 1976. Therefore, no contribution is payable by the employer in respect of such persons. The learned Advocate for the appellants has contended that the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Act is a beneficial statute. While interpreting such statute the principle of reciprocity should be kept in view. The insured person on whose behalf contributions are payable must be benefited by the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Scheme. In case of daily wage workers it is not likely that such workers will ever fulfil the conditions for entitlement to benefits laid down to under section 22 of the Act. It will also not be humanly possibly to keep track of the insured persons who change the jobs very frequently. Hence there are few chances for a worker engaged on daily wage basis to qualify for the benefits. He further argued that the contributions are payable every month. The entire Act speaks either of months or years. There is no mention with regard to payment of contribution for a period which is less than a month, thus the obvious intention of the Legislature is that the workers engaged on daily wage basis are not to be treated as insured persons and no contribution are payable by the employer on their behalf.
3. The Representative of the respondent pleaded that sections 2(i) and 2(j) of the Employees' Old- Age Benefits Act provide for the definition of the terms 'insured person' and 'Insurable employment'.
4. The insurable employment means "employment of a person under a contract of service or apprenticeship, whether written or oral, express or implied and in this definition it is obvious that any person who is employed under a contract of service and not expressly excluded from the application of the Act under section 47 thereof shall be deemed to be in the insurable employment.
5. The person employed on daily wage basis are necessarily employed under a contract of service.
6. He invited our attention towards Employees' Old-Age Benefits (Determination of Wages for Computation of Contributions) Regulations, 1980 wherein it is provided in sub-regulation (4) of regulation 3 that, "where wages are disbursed on daily basis, the contribution shall be computed at the prescribed percentage of the daily wage multiplied by the actual number of days for which wages are payable in the month." He urged that these regulations being statutory regulations the provisions of these regulations are to be given due consideration. This leaves no room for any other interpretation except that contributions are payable even in respect of persons employed on daily wage basis.
7. ' He went on to argue that the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Act is a beneficial and remedial statute and the Hon'ble Supreme Court of Pakistan has held in the matter of Kohinoor Chemical Co. Ltd.
8. And another v. Sind Employees' Social Security Institution PLD 1977 SC 197 that a beneficial or remedial legislation is conceived as a means of ameliorating the lot of working class, and as such it would be in keeping with the accepted principles of interpretation, that it should be so construed as to advance the remedy and suppress the mischief or else it would frustrate the legislative intent.
9. It would appear, therefore, that in keeping with the object of the legislation as wide an interpretation should be placed on the term "employee" and "establishment" as premissible within the language employed by the statute.
10. ' The word "insured person" should therefore, be so construed as to include all groups of workers. So far as the argument of reciprocity is concerned it is misconvicted that a worker employed on temporary basis will not fulfil the condition for entitlement to benefits because the aggregate period of employment of an insured person which may be taken into account for entitlement to benefits could be intermittent and with several employers.
11. We have carefully examined the matter and are of the considered opinion that according to the Act and regulations made by the Board under section 45 of the Act the workers engaged on daily wage basis are covered under the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Act. It is obligatory for the employer to pay contributions in respect of every person in their insurable employment including persons employed on daily wage basis in the prescribed manner. The appeal is dismissed.
12. ' MALIK MEHRBAN KHAN (MEMBER).-- I agree.