Visakhapatnam: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the employees provident fund authorities to consider representations for implementation of provident fund benefit to all members of AP State Aids Control Society Employees’ Union.
A single judge bench headed by Justice Ravi Cheemalapati held the hearing on a batch of petitions and directed the regional officer of EPFO, Guntur, to consider the representations submitted by the employees’ union, and implement EPF strictly in accordance with law and rules, for all the members irrespective of their consolidated remuneration up to Rs 15,000 per month.
The court also directed the regional officer to consider the representation of petitioner Sudarthi Venu within ten weeks and intimate the decision to the petitioners.
State president of AP AIDS Control Employees’ Union, Sudarthi Venu, and two others --P Venkatasubbaiah and Madikonda Jayakumar -- of the union have filed the writ petition in the high court, seeking court directions to the Central Provident Fund commissioner, New Delhi, to initiate an inquiry as contemplated in Section 7 A in the EPF and Miscellaneous Provision Act-1952 to extend EPF benefits to the all the employees working in NACO Project.
Venu mentioned that while the newly appointed employees are given EPF, many employees working for 15 to 20 years are still not getting EPF benefits. In 2015, NACO issued an office memorandum to all state AIDS Control Societies regarding implementation of EPF facility to all AP AIDS Control Society (APSACS) employees whose consolidated remuneration is below Rs 15,000 per month.
Based on the NACO instructions, APSACS implemented the EPF policy from July 2015 but only 380 out of the total 1,200 employees were given the EPF facility, he added.
They have taken the total consolidated remuneration (ranging between Rs 15,500 and Rs 16,750) into consideration. Due to this, 800 employees have lost the EPF benefit, the petitioner said.
In other national programmes such as National Health Mission, even though the salary/remuneration of employees is Rs 50,000, EPF was made applicable up to Rs 15,000. The same should be applied to these 800 employees who were paid above R 15,000, the petitioner pleaded.
