Goa Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board

Start with your situation

• Building workers aged eighteen to under sixty should check registration first, since many benefits depend on membership.
• For tools, the grant needs three years' membership and regular contributions.
• For a house, the housing advance needs five years' continuous membership and fifteen years' service before superannuation.
• For treatment after an accident or illness, check the medical assistance scheme. It applies to stays of five or more days in hospital.
• After a death in the family, the death, funeral and family pension schemes go to different people. Read each scheme to see who qualifies.

Before you claim

• Each benefit has its own scheme document. Read the document for the benefit you want.
• The download-forms page says forms are coming soon, but the scheme documents still print forms such as Form XXXIV. Check the document for the form number.
• The Board's scheme document calls the tools scheme a grant. A third-party listing calls it a loan. Read the scheme document before you rely on either description.
• Confirm current terms with the Board before you claim. Its contact page lists how to reach the office.

How decisions are made

• The Board sanctions benefits, so approval rests with the Board under each scheme.
• Disaster relief can be given before the approved schemes pay out, through a committee chaired by the Minister for Labour.

The Goa Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board runs welfare benefits for building workers in Goa. It was constituted on 10 April 2008 under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, and it implements that Act in the state. The Board sits within the Labour and Employment Department of the Government of Goa, with its office in Panaji.

How programmes work

The Board's benefits are set out in a separate scheme document for each one, published on its website. Most are paid to members of the Fund, to their families or nominees, or to beneficiaries with a health or disability condition. The scheme documents are the main source for the rules, including the conditions for each benefit.

The Board sanctions most benefits at its discretion, and it decides some amounts itself. The education assistance, for example, covers the courses the Board specifies from time to time, at an assistance level the Board determines.

The Board's download-forms page says forms are coming soon. The scheme documents themselves print application forms, such as Form XXXIV for maternity benefit, so check the scheme document for the form you need.

Who can apply

Building workers aged eighteen or over and under sixty can register with the Board. Many of its benefits ask for membership of the Fund, and some set a longer period of membership.

The grant for tools needs three years' membership and regular contributions. The marriage assistance needs three years' continuous membership. The housing advance needs five years' continuous membership and fifteen years' service before superannuation. The pension benefit goes to a member who reaches sixty after working as a building worker for at least one year since the rules came into force.

Family pension goes to the surviving spouse of a pensioner. The funeral and death benefits go to the nominees or dependents of a deceased member. Education assistance goes to the children of members. Interim relief goes to beneficiaries in an area hit by a disaster.

Employers have duties under the same Act. It applies to any establishment that employs, or has employed, ten or more building workers on any day in the preceding twelve months. Every employer of such an establishment must apply to register it, online through the Goa government's website.

What the benefits cover

The schemes fall into a few groups. Some support building workers who are members: the pension, the housing advance, the tools grant, medical assistance and maternity benefit. Some support families after a death: the death, funeral and family pension schemes. Some support children and marriages: education and marriage assistance. The disability pension supports beneficiaries who are permanently disabled, and interim relief covers people affected by disaster.

Who runs it

The Labour Commissioner, Goa, is the Member Secretary and the Chief Executive Officer of the Board. The Board implements the Act in Goa and sanctions the benefits under its schemes.

Disaster relief has its own route. A committee chaired by the Minister for Labour, with the Secretary (Labour) and the Labour Commissioner as members, may extend immediate relief to affected beneficiaries until the approved schemes pay out.

Locations

The Board works from the office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment, on the second floor of Patto Plaza in Panaji, Goa. Its website has a contact page, a citizen client charter and a list of its schemes.