THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Labour Department has sent a letter to the Union Ministry of Labour urging to take urgent steps to implement the High Court order in connection with the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) pension.
In a letter to Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar, Labour Minister T P Ramakrishnan said the move to challenge the High Court order, which comes as a big relief for lakhs of EPF pensioners, by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) was against the interest of pensioners and the EPFO should abstain from the move.
The Kerala High Court has set aside the Employees Pension (Amendment) Scheme (GSR609(E)), effecting various changes that have reduced pension eligibility of employees in a big way. The amendment brought in 2014 dropped the provision of allowing employees to be paid pension on the basis of the actual salary drawn by them if they had contributed on the basis of actual salary drawn by them on a request jointly made by employees and the employer.
The amendment suggested the pension of the employees to be calculated by taking an average of 60 months’ pay, instead of 12 months before the retirement.