PNB WORKMEN EMPLOYEES CONTRIBUTORY BENEFIT FUND Bank has created a PNB Workmen Employees Contributory Fund with contribution from members who are permanent workmen employee of the Bank, including part time employees drawing scale wages, to provide help and succor to the Members and their family, in the shape of financial assistance to the family in the unfortunate event of the death of any member, and as reimbursement to the Member for expenses incurred for medical treatment of his/her self and family. 1. FUND: The Fund shall be known as PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK WORKMEN EMPLOYEES CONTRIBUTORY BENEFIT FUND (Hereinafter for brevity called The Fund ). 2. OBJECTIVES OF THE FUND: The objectives of the Fund are: - a) To pay lump sum amount to the family in case of the unfortunate event of the premature death of any member workman employee during employment. b) To provide help and succor to the member workman employee who need financial assistance for medical treatment of Self/ Spouse/ Minor Children. 3. DEFINITIONS: In these Rules and Regulations, the following words and expressions shall have the meaning assigned to them, as follows, unless there is something repugnant in the subject of context: i. Bank means Punjab National Bank ii. Workmen means all the permanent workmen employees including part-time employees drawing scale wages, in service of the Bank. iii. Member means a workman employee (as per item no. 3 ii above) who agrees to become a member of the Fund, by paying the annual contribution for that year, payable in January. iv. Governing Body means the body designated to formulate the norms to administer the Fund. v. Contribution means payments made by the member workmen employees to the Fund. vi. Fund means Punjab National Bank Workmen Employees Contributory Benefit Fund. vii. Family for which reimbursement may be allowed from the Fund would consist of the spouse, i.e. the wife/ husband & minor children less than 18 years of age. Age of such children would be calculated, as applicable as on the date of cause of action. viii. Year shall mean a calendar year.
4. MEMBERSHIP: a) All permanent Workmen Employees of the Bank including those drawing scale wages, would be eligible to be members of the Fund, and their annual contribution to the Fund would be deducted from the salary of January each year, unless the workman employee furnishes a written request to exempt him/her from the membership of the Fund, and not to deduct the annual contribution to the Fund from his/her salary. b) The Annual Membership Contribution to the Fund, would be Rs.250/- (Rupees Two Hundred Fifty only) per member (irrespective of cadre) per annum, to be paid through the salary of January every year. This amount may be reviewed by the Governing Body from time to time. c) The consolidated amount of membership to the Fund is to be credited by the Circles / Head Office Divisions, directly in to the designated CBS Account of the Fund, within February 15 th each year. d) The payment of the annual contribution to the Fund in January makes a workman employee a member of the Fund for that calendar year. e) A workman shall cease to be member of the Fund if he ceases to be in employment for any reason whatsoever or he does not make two successive contributions to the Fund. f) A workman who proceeds on sabbatical leave shall not be eligible to receive assistance under the Scheme during the period of his leave. However, on resumption of duties, he may renew his membership of the Fund. 5. BENEFITS: i) In the unfortunate event of the death of a member workman employee, financial assistance for Rs.30,000* (Rupees Thirty Thousands only) would be extended to the family, subject to the annual contribution to the Fund having been deducted from the salary of January of the concerned employee. In case of the spouse of the employee, this assistance would be immediately made available, to the debit of the suspense account, by the controlling authority of the concerned Member, and proposal for reimbursement be moved to HRD Division Head Office, within a week, through the concerned Circle Office / by the HO Division. For assistance to be provided to member of family other than spouse; a written request be submitted by the legal heir of the member, to the controlling authority. Such proposals may also be moved within a week of receiving such request, to HRD Division Head Office, through the concerned Circle Office / by the HO Division.
ii) Financial Reimbursement from the Fund shall be available to the member workmen employees towards reimbursement of expenses incurred for medical treatment of self, spouse or minor children for all ailments and major accidents, which require hospitalization, as provided in the Bipartite Settlement. The request for relief in aforesaid cases would be considered, only in cases where the amount not reimbursed for admissible expenses under hospitalization owing to sub-ceilings, as provided in the Bipartite Settlement, and any prevalent contributory hospitalization scheme, is more than Rs. 5,000* (Rupees Five Thousands). iii. The quantum of relief from the Fund would be admissible as per the lowest out of the following stipulated conditions: 1. Quantum of reimbursement from the Fund not to exceed the amount permissible under the scheme for Hospitalization Expenses under the BPS. 2. Financial assistance permissible for upto 75% of the admissible amount left uncovered owing to subceilings after reimbursement received under the Hospitalization Expenses under the BPS and the Contributory Hospitalization Scheme for Workmen Staff, if any. 3. The maximum quantum of assistance allowable to a member towards medical reimbursements for self and family during a calendar year, would be Rs.30,000*(Rupees Thirty Thousand) per member. iv. For cases involving Super Specialized Medical Assistance, as in the following cases: a. By Pass Heart Surgery b. Operations of Brain / Lung c. Cancer Operations d. Kidney / Liver / Bone Marrow Transplants e. Multiple Fractures (where time taken for surgical operation is more than three hours) the Governing Body may consider extending an advance for upto 50% of the amount otherwise eligible for reimbursement from the Fund. This advance would be subject to the final settlement of the claim of the member from the Fund, as specified under Point No. 6 as under. Application for receiving advance may be sent directly to the Governing Body, through the controlling authority of the Member.
## The amounts mentioned with an (*) are tentative amounts, which would be reviewed by the Governing Body from time to time. These amounts may be revised upwards / downwards, depending upon the position of the Fund. 6. SETTLEMENT OF CLAIM: The eligibility for receiving assistance and quantum of the financial assistance to be extended by the Fund will be determined by the Governing Body after taking into account the eligibility under the norms for that particular purpose and the availability of funds. 7. ELIGIBILITY FOR RECEIVING ASSISTANCE FROM THE FUND: To receive assistance under the Fund, the employee should be an existing member of the Fund and should have made at least two contributions continuously preceding the cause of action. However, in the case of death of members, payment of only the current contribution to the Fund would be sufficient. Eligibility to receive assistance from the fund would depend upon the date of cause of action. It is clarified that cause of action in the case of death would be the date of death of the employee, while for the purposes of reimbursement of Hospitalization Expenses, it would be the date of last sanction of claim of Hospitalization Expenses preferred by the employee, either under BPS or under any other scheme of the Bank. 8. GENERATION OF CLAIM WITH TIME FRAME IN CASE OF REIMBURSEMENT OF HOSPITALIZATION EXPENSES: Proposals seeking reimbursement from the Fund on behalf of the eligible member employees are to be generated and directly submitted by the office sanctioning the Hospitalization Claim of the member employees. The sanctioning office for Workmen Employees of a Circle is the Circle Office, and is the concerned Division for employees working in Head Office Divisions. Exceptions may be made only in the case of death of a member, where subject to the fulfillment of the eligibility criterion, financial assistance may be extended to the family from the Fund, even where cause of action pertains to a previous year. 9. PROCEDURE FOR AVAILING BENEFIT: For employees who are members of the Fund and are eligible to receive benefits under the rules, proposals may be moved with regard to the cause of action and time frame as specified above at point no. 7 and 8 above by the concerned Circle / Head Office Division, to the HRD Division Head Office.
The Convener at HRD Division, Head Office, shall process and put up the claims of the members before the Governing Body of the Fund for consideration, on an annual basis. The Governing Body may consider the applications received, in a meeting held for the purpose or by circulation amongst the members and take a view on the benefits claimed by the member employee. Decision of the Governing Body in respect of all the applications received from the member employees seeking financial assistance/ relief regarding eligibility and quantum of assistance from the Fund, shall be final. 10. MEMBER WORKMEN TO BE BOUND BY THE RULES: Every member workman eligible to participate in the Fund and to receive benefits from the Fund, shall be bound in all matters relating thereto, by the rules and regulations related to the Fund, in force from time to time. Any workman who voluntarily ceases to be a member of the Fund shall not be eligible to rejoin the fund except with the prior written permission of the Governing Body. Contribution to the Fund once received from an employee shall not be refunded under any circumstances. For a member who has received reimbursement from the fund, irrespective of amount & purpose excepting in case of death/superannuation of the member, the amount reimbursed from the fund would be recovered from the member, in case the annual contribution to the fund is not paid for the succeeding three years of receiving such reimbursement from the fund. This clause is applicable for each reimbursement received from the fund. (Ref. - H.R.D. Division Circular No. 288 dated 03.12.2005)