EPF employees of being exposed to COVID-19 Monitoring of Welfare Measures

Central Government Employees News

EPF employees of being exposed to COVID-19 – Monitoring of Welfare Measures

File No.B-11/1/2020-HRM-VI

कर्मचारी भविष्‍य निधि संगठन
EMPLOYEES’ PROVIDENT FUND ORGANISATION
श्रम एवं रोजगार, मंत्रालय, भारत सरकार
MINISTRY OF LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
मुख्‍य कार्यालय/Head Office
भविष्‍य निधि भवन, 14, भीकाएजी कामा प्‍लेस, नई दिल्‍ली -110066
Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan, 14, Bhikaiji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066
Website: www.epfindia.gov.in, www.epfindia.nic.in

10 SEP 2020

To

All ACC (HQ) (Zone) / ACC (Zone) / Director (PDUNASS) / ACC (ASD) &
The President, Regional Staff Welfare Committees

Subject: Monitoring of Welfare Measures – Regarding

Sir/Madam,

After a clarification from the Ministry of Home Affairs that services rendered by EPFO, being essential services, are out of the lockdown guidelines and also considering the perception of enhanced risk of EPF employees of being exposed to COVID-19, the Central Staff Welfare Committee (EPF), pro-actively, increased ex gratia DRF to Rs 10.00 Lakhs in case an EPF employee expires due to COVID-19. Accordingly, paragraph 4(vi) of the Head Office letter no. Welfare/3 (136)2019/ Policy Matter/o8 dated 28.04.2020, prescribes that ex gratia DRF should, ordinarily, be paid within 15 days of the death. Similarly, under paragraph 4(e) of guidelines issued vide Head Office letter no. HRM-V/11(07) Compassionate Appointment / Policy Matter/2019/ Vol.III/478/ 2020 dated 23.07.2020, it was clearly laid down that Welfare Officer would be deputed, immediately, after the death of an EPF employee for assisting the eligible family member in completing the formalities related to appointment on compassionate grounds.

Also check: Central Government Employees Absence during COVID – 19 epidemic lockdown period – clarification is received from DOPT

2. During a review of COVID-19 related deaths in EPFO, the CPFC/President, CSWC expressed his displeasure on inordinate delays in payment of ex-gratia DRF to the family members in all cases on flimsy grounds. He noted with his deep anguish that in none of the case, even after the lapse of over three months, Welfare Officer had been deputed for collecting the request for compassionate appointment. He directed that reasons for such delay must be ascertained from the respective Regional Offices and be forwarded to the Head Office with specific recommendations of respective ACCs (ZO). Hence, all ACCs (ZO) of the state of Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and West Bengal and the ACC (HQ) of Maharashtra, are requested to furnish a detailed status report as desired by the CPFC at the earliest and ensure that the Welfare Officer is deputed immediately to meet the family members of the deceased employee for collecting the information/documents.
3. In the light of explicit directions of Head Office, all ZOs are, therefore, sures taken by EPFO in all death cases of our own employees, especially those due to COVID-19. It is requested to update an action taken report by every Thursday in Excel file for which detailed guidelines are annexed herewith.

Also read: Filling up the post of Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer in EPFO

Encl: as above.

Yours faithfully,

(Uma Mandal)
Additional Central PF Commissioner (HRM)

Annexure

GUIDE TO UPDATE THE WEEKLY REPORT ON WELFARE MEASURES
(To be updated by ZO every Thursday)

1. An Excel workbook is available at following URL
2. Double-clicking on the above URL shall open a workbook in Excel.
3. All states, including ASD and PDNASS, have been assigned a worksheet each.
4. All requisite fields of information should be filled in the worksheet of the respective state under supervision of RPFC-I (Admn) of the ZO after collecting and compiling the same from all field offices of the state concerned (all ZTIs in case of PDNASS).
5. No data field or worksheet should be altered, modified, amended, deleted etc.in any way.
6. Additional information, if any, may be furnished in remark column.
7. In case of “Nil” information, ‘zero’ should be entered in number fields.
8. Date-field should be entered in “dd-mm-yyyy” format.
9. After filling up of all desired information, refresh button be clicked to update the workbook and then close the workbook.
10. In case of any difficulty, an e-mail may be sent to [email protected] giving full details.