300 business units fudging salaries to evade PF benefits to employees

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 3

Over 300 business establishments in the city have been twisting the salaries of their employees with the motive to prevent themselves from extending the benefit of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to the workforce.

This has not only excluded the employers from the scanner of provident fund department but also prevent the business units from facing any action under the EPFO Act. "Recently we have observed that many employers are showing wages of their employees between Rs 15,200-15,700 per month to show these employees as excluded employees. This is illegal. The employers are doing this to exclude employees from the purview of the EPFO Act," said Dheeraj Gupta. "We will initiate inquiries in all such cases to find out what were the wages of these employees before increase of wage limit from Rs 6,500 to Rs 15, 000 per month and what is the rationale of now increasing their salaries little more than 15,000 to avoid PF benefits and accordingly we will determine dues in respect of these employees by initiating 7A judicial inquiries," said Gupta. Apart from this, Gupta said, employers have also been resorting to tactic of reducing the number of working days per month to reduce the Employees Provident Fund monthly statutory contributions. This was also legally wrong and a serious offence under the Employees Provident Fund and MP Act, 1952.

"This violation has come to our notice during current inspections of some business establishments. Now, we are issuing notices to such violators and asking them about the rationale of such increase in salaries. Around 300 such establishments alone in Jalandhar are resorting to this. Due to such malpractices, around over 10,000 workers in various business establishments are at a loss," said the Employees Provident Fund Commissioner. Sources said establishment which have been adopting this practice include sports industry, hotel industry, construction industry, transport units, schools, hand tool industry and of some other sorts. Yesterday, during the International Labour's Day function, the department also launched, 'One Member One EPF Account' scheme. With the help of Universal Account Number (UAN), the PF department will consolidate multiple EPF Account number of members into one Employees Provident Fund account number.