Provident Fund: 40 Crore Unorganized Sector Workers Will Get A Chance To Join EPFO

New Delhi, January 28, 2021: Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) doors can be opened for 40 crores workers of the unorganized sectors. However, the EPFO will have to make significant changes in its operations.

In the new year, the organization will have to make concerted efforts to improve service delivery, focusing on implementing the government’s ambitious Self-Employed India Employment Scheme (ABRY). The Social Security Code is expected to come into force from April 1 next year.

In such a situation, the EPFO will have to mould its plans and services following the new environment. It will also bring the workers of the unorganized sector into social security. More than 40 crore unorganized sector workers do not come into any establishment or company’s salary register. They do not get benefits like provident fund and gratuity. The government plans to bring all of them under EPFO to provide social security.

Brijesh Upadhyay, former general secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), said that new challenges would come before the EPFO to implement the Social Security Code 2021. He said that their plans and network’s scope would have to be increased to provide social security to the unorganized sector workers. These employees will be provided social security benefits under the Code.

He says that to provide social security to workers in the unorganized sector, the EPFO will have to redesign its plans and services. Earlier, the question was raised about who would contribute to the employer’s share in a social security scheme like a provident fund in an unorganized sector. This share will either be given by the government or the workers in the unorganized sector.