NAPS – Five Checkpoints to watch out for
National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) is an apprenticeship promotion scheme under Apprentice Act 1961. The scheme comes with a hosts of benefits to the employers and the candidates alike. However, the following compliance points are indispensable and employers have to be duly compliant .
1) Maximum Quota: As per the provisions of Rule 7-B of Apprentice Rules, an employer cannot engage more than 15% (25% in Maharashtra) of total headcount (direct and through contractor) in his establishment as apprentices(under any govt approved scheme).
2) Stipend Payment Due Date : The employer should ensure that the monthly stipend is not paid beyond 10th of the following month.
3) Workmen Compensation Policy : Although Labour Laws are not applicable to the apprentices, the employer has to ensure due coverage of the apprentices under a Workmen Compensation Policy for any medical or personal accident coverage.
4) Age Criteria : The candidates in the age bracket of 14 to 35 years can only be engaged under the scheme. The Adolescent candidates (14 to 18 years), cannot be engaged in hazardous activity or process.
5) Previous Employment(UAN) History : It is advised to ensure that the candidate being enrolled under NAPS, does not hold a previous UAN thereby implying that he has previous service history. Although, there is no explicit mention of this condition, the UAN holding candidate should be avoided to be enrolled under NAPS in order to ensure that genuine freshers are engaged in this scheme.
Feel free to reach Team Payrule for more information about the NAPS scheme.
Sumit Jain
+91 9316633890 I sumit@payrule.in