Officials in the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) and the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will focus on increasing coverage of contract workers, especially construction workers, to be allotted Unique Account Numbers (UAN). The mechanism for carrying out the drives is yet to be finalized.
“The ministry is planning to launch special drives to ensure contract workers, construction workers are included in PF, as law entitles them to. They form a large section of all workers, and do not get the benefits of PF because of the temporary nature of work,” said Gauri Kumar, Secretary, MoLE.
EPFO officials said the mechanism for this was still being finalized, but it may consist of EPFO approaching the establishments, in this case, construction companies, and following it up with site visits to confirm the details of workers. Construction workers form
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The suggestion to focus on this segment of workers was made by two sub-committees of the EPFO set up in October at the time of the launch of UAN, which allows portability of PF benefits to workers.
Central Provident Fund Commissioner KK Jalan headed the sub-committees which included representatives from central trade unions, BJP-affiliated Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh's functionary MJ Rao, and Ramen Pandey of the Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).