The Central Government is planning to introduce the proposed amendments to the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act in the coming Parliament session. Also being considered for introduction in next session are two of the four labour codes which are an amalgamation of 44 Central labour laws.
The amendments to EPF & MP Act include reduction of the threshold limit of the number of employees for coverage of establishment, deletion of schedule of establishments and adding a negative list, simplifying the definition of wages for the purpose of calculation of contributions, coverage of unorganised workers, delegation of power with regard to exemption of establishments, and provision for lower contribution from the low income employees.
Briefing the media about the amendments here on Saturday, Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said the amendments were intended for welfare of the workers. Forty crore workers from unorganised sector will be brought into the purview of the Act, and so do the hitherto exempted establishments. The law’s applicability to only 187 types of establishments will be removed.
The threshold limit of the number of employees for coverage under this act is being brought down from existing 20 to 10.
Elaborating on the amendment to the definition of wages, he said so far EPF was being calculated on the basic salary, but would now be widened to include various allowances such as HRA.
