OBSERVE  1ST MAY AS 

       INTERNATIONAL WORKER'S DAY.

 

FOR WORKERS THE COLOUR OF SALUTE IS RED

NO OTHER COLUR WILL RECOGNISE BY 

THE WORKING CLASS

RED SALUTE

JAYARAJ KV

SECRETARY GENERAL 

NFAEE

'Seventh pay commission fails to address woes of employees'

Visakhapatnam: The seventh pay commission report has failed to address the welfare of employees, said KKN Kutty, President of Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers.

Addressing a meeting on the seventh pay commission in the city on Sunday, Kutty slammed the centre for failing to look into the issues of the employees and warned that agitations would be launched to demand minimum pay as per the market prices.

He said that the commission had recommended that the minimum pay should be hiked from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000. However, considering the current market conditions, he said that minimum pay was not adequate. He said that a memorandum with 26 demands had been submitted to the centre. He warned that massive protests will take out from July onwards if the government failed to address the issues of employees in the seventh pay commission.

GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO WITHDRAW THE 10th FEBRUARY-2016 NOTIFICATION WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Labour & Employment

21-April-2016 17:51 IST 

            Government had issued a notification dated 10th February 2016 regarding rules for withdrawal from EPF Funds by the members. Under the revised rules, the employee was permitted to withdraw the employees’ share from the fund (which is 12% of the wages). However, it was prescribed that the employers’ share of contribution towards the Provident Fund (which is 3.67% of wage) would be allowed to be withdrawn only at the age of retirement (58 years). The objective was to provide a minimum social security to the workers at the time of retirement. It was noticed that over 80% of the claims settled by EPFO belonged to pre-mature withdrawal of funds, treating the EPF accounts as savings accounts, and not a Social Security instrument. 

            In order to address the issues the amendment stated above was carried out with the consent of Trade Unions and with the intention of promoting a decent accumulation of provident fund for the members at the end of their working lifetimes.

            However, considering the representations received from various quarters and after consultations with the various stakeholders, Minister of State (IC) Labour and Employment, Sh Bandaru Dattatreya announced that the government has decided to withdraw the said 10th February 2016 Notification with immediate effect.

            Accordingly, the workers are now allowed to withdraw the entire amount from the provident fund as per existing provisions of the EPF Scheme 1952 including the employers’ share of 3.67%.   (Release ID: 139046) 21^st April,2016.

ON SECOND THOUGHT, DOPT DOES NOT WANT TO

SCRAP PENSIONS ACT.

            New Delhi: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has decided against scrapping a 145-year-old law, which exempts pension from being “attached or sequestered”, though a bill seeking its abrogation from statute book has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.

            Earlier, the DoPT had asked the Law Ministry to include the Pensions Act, 1871 in the repealing bill so it could be removed from the statute book. One of the key provisions of the law is that it exempts pension from attachment by any court. But later, it wrote to the Law Ministry to remove the Act from the repealing bill.

            After its passage in the Lok Sabha, the Repealing and Amending (Third) Bill, 2015 is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

            The Law Ministry is the nodal agency for repealing laws which have lost relevance today.

            A senior government functionary said that perhaps the realisation that there is no other law in the country which protects pensions led to decision against scrapping the Act.

            After the DoPTs request, the Law Ministry approached the Union Cabinet to clear an official amendment to remove the Pensions Act from the repealing bill.

            On March 23, the Union Cabinet cleared the official amendments, paving way for the passage of the bill in the upper house. After being cleared by the Rajya Sabha, the bill will travel back to the Lok Sabha to clear the official amendments.

          Section 11 of the Act states that “No Pension granted or continued by government on political considerations, or on account of past services or present infirmities or as a compassionate allowance, and no money due or to become due on account of any such pension or allowance, shall be liable to seizure, attachment or sequestration by process of any court at the instance of a creditor, for any demand against the pensioner, or in satisfaction of a decree or order of any such court.”

            Another official amendment cleared by the Union Cabinet relates to the Appropriation Acts (Repeal) Bill, 2015. The bill, cleared by the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha, seeks to repeal The Punjab Appropriation Act among other laws. But the Punjab Appropriation   Act has already been repealed by the Punjab Legislative Assembly and “inadvertently” became part of the Appropriation (Acts) Repeal Bill, 2015.

            The two bills seek to scrap a total of 1,053 Acts which have become redundant and are clogging the statute books: 

PTI

Press Statement

20^th April 2016

EPFO Amendments: Government should learn the lessons

Government of India has been forced to withdraw the notifications, amending the rules for withdrawal of funds from EPFO. The government, which was not prepared to listen to the demands of the central trade unions and their representatives in the Central Board of Trustees of EPFO, had to withdraw it because of struggles of workers in different parts of the country including Bengaluru and Visakhapatnam.

It is to be recalled that last year’s Union Budget proposed to appropriate the so called unclaimed money from EPFO while this year the government proposed to tax EPFO contributions, which it had to withdraw later due to huge protests in different parts of the country. These measures are part of the government policies aimed at dismantling the EPF itself. 

In the meeting of the CBT on 29^th March 2016, all the trade union representatives demanded withdrawal of this notification or to give an option to the workers to withdraw their money or to continue to keep it in EPFO. The government is trying to mislead by saying that the amendment on 10^th February was done as per the suggestions of some trade unions.

Denial of full withdrawal creates serious difficulties to the workers, particularly in situations where they do not have any job security and other statutory benefits, as in the case of garment sector where huge unrest has erupted. 

CITU congratulates the workers who have forced the government to withdraw this unwanted amendment. It reiterates its demand that the government should hold proper consultations with trade unions before taking any policy decision that impacts the workers in any way. 

Issued by,

(A K PADMANABHAN)

President

CITU