Labour Minister Assures To Settle EPF Claims

THE union labour minister Sis Ram Ola has assured the CITU leaders to immediately settle EPF claims made by workers exiting the EPF scheme along with the interest amount.

Dipankar Mukherjee MP, and W R Varada Rajan, secretaries of CITU met the minister on October 11 and urged him to direct the EPF organisation to effect settlement of claims by workers exiting the EPF scheme together with up-to-date interest on the balances in their accounts. Around 8 lakh workers have exited the EPF scheme since April 1, 2004 in whose case interest has been paid only up to March 31, 2004. This virtually deprives the workers of their interest entitlement as in most case the workers who exit the EPF scheme cannot be tracked, stated the CITU secretariat in a statement issued after this meeting.  Around 90 per cent of the settlement claims are non-pensionable exits and hence the EPFO normally does not maintain their addresses on its record.

The minister, the statement noted, immediately instructed the central provident fund commissioner to issue administrative instructions to all EPF offices to settle claims of workers with interest at the interim rate of 8.5 per cent. He also assured that he would personally pursue with the finance minister the issue of clearing the notifications for the two years 2002-03 and 2003-04 declaring the interest rate of 9.5 per cent as also the interest rate for the current year.

The CITU leaders also urged the labour minister to take immediate action to amend the Payment of Bonus Act in the context of the demand of the trade unions to remove the wage ceilings therein which have become obsolete, virtually taking away all workers in the organised sector employment outside the purview of the act itself. They pointed out that while the income ceilings in respect of the EPF, and more recently the payment of wages have been raised to Rs 6,500 per month, the eligibility ceiling under the bonus act remain pegged at Rs 3,500 per month. The minister assured to look into this demand. (INN)