CITU opposes govt's move to lower penal charges on defaulting employers

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has opposed the central government's move to lower the penal charges on employers who default on depositing the provident fund, pension, and insurance contributions of their employees with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). “This has been done apparently in the name of promoting ease of doing business at the cost of ease of living of our working people who have already been losing their hard-earned wages,” said CITU in a statement.Earlier on Saturday, the ministry of labour and employment issued a notification that significantly lowered the penal charges applicable on employers and made them uniformly applicable irrespective of the duration of default.If an employer makes any default in the payment of an employee's contribution to the Employees Provident Fund, 1952; Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 or Employee Provident Scheme, 1995, the retirement fund body used to recover the same money from the employer by levying penalty damages at different rates for different durations of default periods.