Over six months after retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) issued a circular in October 2015 directing all its zonal offices to ensure coverage of all construction workers under the Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952, it has issued another circular admitting that enrolment has been “below expectations” and has asked all its offices to complete the process by June-end “without fail.”

“The matter of coverage of construction workers … is being monitored at the highest level in the government and is an area of utmost concern… However, in spite of repeated instructions, performance in this area is still below expectations,” said the circular, urging its regional offices to accord “top priority” to the matter.

‘Compliance months’

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has also decided to observe April to June 2016 as “compliance for construction workers” months.

Last year, the Delhi High Court had passed an order that all construction workers need to be mandatorily enrolled under the EPF scheme, setting aside an appeal by builders, who had expressed concerns over “ambiguity” in the eligibility of workers, many of whom are employed on a casual or short-term basis.

The latest EPFO circular, while also calling for full compliance for contractual workers, has urged all its offices to ensure immediate action, prepare an action check-list by April 29 to meet office-wise targets by end of June 30, 2016, adding that “coverage of construction workers needs to be at least doubled. It has also asked all its offices to submit monthly reports to the head office.

Checklist

The action checklist includes meeting stakeholders, such as all trade unions, public sector undertakings, large principal employers with 500 or more workers and arranging and ensuring that all construction sites measuring 10,000 sq feet are photographed and all workers on sites covered.

Up to March 31, 2014, there were over five crore building and construction workers in the country, as per National Sample Survey 68{+t}{+h} round, with only a little over one crore workers registered, as per a written reply by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment in the Lok Sabha.

To make the registration process easier for employers, the Labour Ministry has launched an e-biz portal that integrates five Central labour Acts, including The Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996.

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