A meeting of CBT was held in New Delhi on 5th March 2020 at New Delhi. This was after Six months of the Previous Meeting held on 21st August. CITU was represented by A.K.Padmanabhan.
Search EPS 95 Pension Hike In CBT Meeting Held on 5 March
Even before the Agendas were known, CITU had written to EPFO for inclusion of issues related to Pensioners, industrial relations issues of EPFO, fire accident in Vigilance Department Of HQ, Media Reports On Cheating by Employers of the money being paid by the EPFO for new Employment, issues related to Date of Birth And names of certain Employees especially in Unorganised Sector not matching with AADHAR card etc. None of these were included despite assurances that Members can also suggest Agendas.
Only positive thing that happened during this Period was the long Pending Notification On Amendment to the COMMUTATION .This was an issue being taken up by CITU for the last Five Years. Though the notification said that the deduction in pension of the those availed commutation will be stopped and full Pension will be paid after 15 years, there was no clarity on return of the additional/excess amounts deducted from Pensioners.
As soon as the meeting began the issue of Meeting being held after 6 months was raised. After a lot of hue and cry, again, an assurance was given by Minister that Quarterly Meeting will be ensured.
The issues of Pensioners: On increase In Minimum Pension, assurance was given by the Minister to take a Deputation of CBT Members to Finance Minister On increased Pension , Workers’ representatives raised number of issues affecting the workers viz., Supreme Court Cases On increased Pension, Medical facilities to Pensioners etc. Non inclusion of suggested issues in the agenda was also raised by Members, It was pointed out that even CBT Members, both workers and employers’ representatives are not getting replies or even acknowledgements to their queries of problems raised from the EPFO/Govt.
On increased Pension for higher Contribution, Govt said that all those issues are subjudice and Supreme Court’s final decisions will be implemented. While discussing this, Labour Secretary was emphatic that implementation of KERALA HC Judgment will be disastrous for the Pension Fund.
Among the 39 Agendas except Four Issues , all were Administration related.
The following are the Decisions.
1. Interest rate for the year for 2019-20 will only be 8.5%. Last year it was 8.65%. Reason was given by the Govt is that reduction in interest rate on investment by EPFO led to reduction in the income of EPFO. The workers’ representatives expressed their strong dissatisfaction and resentment over the Govt policy of on reduction in interest rate on investment of social security savings of the workers. But the fact of not having adequate Income in EPFO to raise/retain the rate was stressed upon by Govt. With the continuing crisis and economic slowdown there are apprehension on further problems in the days to come among all but Officially it is not being mentioned.
2. As far as Pensioners who had Commuted their Pension, Full Pension will be restored after 15 years of recovery.
Additional/excess Amount recovered after 15 years of deduction will be returned to Pensioners. ( The Notification On this is Published in Working Class issue of March)
3. EDLI: The earlier decision on the minimum and maximum of 2.5 lakhs And 6 Lakhs was for only Two years. Now this will be given continuously. Minister has assured to look into the demand of increasing the Minimum to 3 Lakhs. There was no specific reply to the issue raised by CITU of LOYALTY PAYMENT, decided earlier but rejected by the Government.
4. There was a Proposal brought by Government to Change the EPS 95 into a Contribution defined Pension Scheme, which will have individual Pension Account for ALL THE NEW COMERS. That will in effect, make the EPS into NPS.
The Proposal was that Minimum Pension and the whole Pension Benefit will be decided by the Govt and Pension will be on the basis of the Pension Fund available in the Subscriber’s Account at the time of retirement. This was stoutly opposed by us and the other Workers representatives and the Govt has, for now, agreed to have a re look into it.
5. The difficulties of filing on line Applications by Workers who are unfamiliar with e-filing was raised. Other issues like the Serious Problems encountered in filings and getting reply from EPFO was also raised. EPFO has said Common Service Centres in different areas will also have the facilities of submitting Applications and efforts are being made to reach a settlement on that.
6.The difficulties encountered in giving Life Certificate was raised. EPFO is discussing with Banks, On issuance of Life Certificate any time of the year with a validity of One year, so that the Crowding Of Banks In November can be avoided.
7. With large number of Vacancies in EPFO, as of now around 9000, there are problems both for the Employees and to Subscribers. Filling up Of vacancies as per the existing Work norms was stressed. It was informed that some recruitments were done recently.
8. The Industrial relation issues in EPFO were generally raised. Minister has assured to discuss with the Unions.
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