Criticism on EPFO's Decision May Lead to Its Suspension

The news of Aadhaar becoming a compulsory element for new EPFO members surprised almost every individual last week. However, after the harsh opposition from trade unions EPFO may suspend its decision to make Aadhaar Card mandatory for new and existing EPFO members. “Amid the pressure from trade unions, the EPFO is likely to put in abeyance its office order issued to field staff for collecting Aadhaar numbers of existing members and new subscribers joining the EPF scheme," a source said.

EPFO asked its field staff to mandatorily ask for Aadhaar numbers from new members with effect from March 1, 2013 and existing members by June 30, 2013. Raising a red flag against this decision, trade unions leaders said that it would be impossible for members to provide Aadhaar numbers as the scheme was not operational in many parts of the country. Also, it was cumbersome to get the numbers in states where the scheme is operational, unions had said.

"They should not have taken this decision suo motu. It should have been discussed in the EPFO's apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustees (CBT)", Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh General Secretary Baij Nath Rai told. Rai who is an EPFO trustee also, further said, "It cannot be done outrightly as there are a lot of hiccups in making Aadhaar number in many parts of the country."

Another EPFO trustee & All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev has entirely opposed it saying that EPFO does not need to use Aadhaar number as unique account number of its members. We are opposing this move. All members do not have Aadhaar numbers. They should make it voluntary," he said adding that EPFO can give unique account number of all members without using the Aadhaar number and platform. Sachdev who is also an EPFO trustee said that AITUC would raise the issue with Labour Minister as well as take it up in the CBT meeting on February 15.

Hind Mazdoor Sabha Secretary A D Nagpal said, "I do not think that this could be done by June 30. We will ask for extension of the deadline in the forthcoming meeting of CBT next month."

A lot of criticism has been shown against EPFO’s decision to make the Aadhaar card necessary for the members. Probably, we all knew it when the buzz came into air last week, right? We would like to have your opinions also about the issue. Share your views with us at connect@pimanpower.com.