Mangalore, August 27: The members of Dkshina Kannada district unit of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions staged a protest in front of the Regional Office of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation in the city demanding better facilities to pensioners on Friday.
In a memorandum addressed to Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjuna Kharge and submitted to the Assistant Provident Fund Commission, Vasanth Achary, general secretary DK district Committee of CITU, said the CITU had been long urging the Employees Provident Fund Organization Trust to retain and continue the benefits introduced through Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995, It had been seeking improvements in the same scheme.
Nearly 80 percent of pensioners were getting less than Rs. 500 a month. The minimum pension payable was unbelievably as low as Rs.50 a month. In the case of contract workers, In the case of contractors were not remitting provident fund contributions collected from the workers to the Provident Fund (P.F.) Organisation.
The labour contractors were enrolling themselves at far off places and not at the actual place of work. This was causing a lot of inconvenience to the workers in getting benefits available to them under the P.F Scheme.
Demands
Mr Achary said that the minimum pension payable should be increased to Rs. 1,000 per month as recommended by the Committee of Experts. The government should contribute 7 percent as its share to the Employees' Pension Fund. The workers should get 20.33 percent of the total contribution made by the employers and employees. Monthly pension should be increased at the rate of 3 percent per annum to compensate for rise in prices.
The benefit of commutation, which had been withdrawn, should be restored. The percentage of reduction in reduced pension should be re-fixed at 3 percent only. The provident fund and pension funds should not be diverted for investment in share market.
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