Workers Being Forced to Forgo PF as They Can't Produce Birth Certificate: Trade Union to Centre

New Delhi: United Trades Union Congress (UTUC), in a letter to the ministry of employment, has brought to light the issue of lakhs of employees, especially workers in the informal sector, being forced to forgo their Provident Fund (PF) because of anomalies in their Date of Birth (DoB).

An estimated Rs 50,000 crore of PF is lying unclaimed with the PF authorities.

While a part of this unclaimed money belongs to employees who have either passed away or have completely forgotten about it, a large chunk belongs to those from rural areas who are illiterate and do not know their date of births recorded anywhere, or do not know at all.

"It is a given that employees in the unorganised sectors — small hotels, shops and establishments, in jute mills and tea gardens are not allowed to register their actual date of birth as per their knowledge. The employers arbitrarily put their names and DoB in the register as per their convenience. These often come in conflict with the DoB given in the Aadhaar card or Voter ID, prompting EPFO to reject their claims," said Ashok Ghosh of the United Trades union Congress (UTUC).

According to Ghosh, the problem lies in the stringent conditions imposed by the EPFO for accepting DoB of workers in its notice issued in 2005.

"The hapless workers have no clue how to comply with these conditions as most of the officials in EPFO refuse to change the DoBs which their employers have arbitrarily recorded. The government should liberalise these conditions to let the workers get their legitimate money," said Ghosh.