Rs 44,054.72 crore has been withdrawn from the EPFO till date: Govt in Rajya Sabha

A total of Rs 44,054.72 crore has been withdrawn from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation till date, including non-refundable Covid advance, with maximum withdrawals from Maharashtra at Rs 8968 crore, Karnatak (Rs 6,418 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 5589 crore) and Delhi (Rs 3308 crore) while the total number of non-refundable claims stood at 38,71,664, labour minister Santosh Gangwar said in response to a written question in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
As part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) announced by the government to address COVID-19 situation, the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme was amended to provide for a non-refundable advance from the provident fund account of a member not exceeding the basic wages and dearness allowances of that member for three months or up to 75% of the amount standing to his credit in the EPF Account, whichever is less.

Meanwhile, the total number of labour related cases pending in cases pending in Central Government Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts (CGIT-cum-LCs), set up under Section 7A of the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947, across the country for more than five years stands at 8,008, labour minister Santosh Gangwar said in a separate reply.

“Lok Adalats are regularly conducted for amicable settlement of cases and to avoid unnecessary litigation or delay. Moreover, the government has requested the registrar generals of all the High Courts to exercise their power of superintendence over CGIT-cum-LCs as per Article 226 of the Constitution of India and to issue directions to CGIT-cum-LCs under their territorial jurisdiction for speedy disposal of the pending cases before them and to ask the CGIT-cum-LCs to submit monthly returns on disposal of cases to the Hon’ble High Courts,” the minister said.

In response to another question on the job portal, the minister informed the Upper House that 78.09 lakh vacancies have been mobilised in the National Career Service portal of the labour ministry till September 16, 2020. “At present, the total number of active job seekers registered on National Career Service Portal is 1.03 crore, of which 13.37 lakh job-seekers are from Maharashtra and 2.70 lakh job-seekers are from Tamil Nadu,” he said.

Commenting on the number of contract workers in India, labour minister Gangwar said that the number of contract labourers engaged during the last five years in the central sphere based on the data of licences and registration certificate issued under the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 stands at 13,64,377 in 2019 compared to 8,39,234 in 2015.