Centre pitches for PF, pension for contractual employees in West Bengal

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Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-led government has claimed that in the past 10 years, many job opportunities have been created in the state government departments.

But the nature of employment generated has been contractual or casual in the nature. According to government data, at least 8% of total employees are contractual or casual.

So, these employees are not entitled to retiral benefits like PF, pension or any type of insurance coverage, according to PF officials of the Kolkata region.

Recently, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) urged the West Bengal government to consider extending the benefits of Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 to casual employees working in different departments of the state government.

According to a state finance department official, currently the number of permanent government employee is around 10.5 lakh and casual or contractual employee is around 1.75 lakh.

“Mainly watchman, housekeeper, data entry operator, para teachers, anganwadi workers, civic volunteers, different health workers and even the home guards are out of this social security ambit,” the official said.

It means these casual or contractual workers are not getting benefits of a PF, pension or any social security scheme.

“We have requested the state government to consider extending these benefits. This will be a great help to the lacs of casual employee and also widening the social security benefits to each and every working person in the state,” said N Rai, Regional PF commissioner –I, Kolkata.

PF officials have already sent multiple letters to the state government but till now, no action have been taken.

However, state government sources said a key obstruction in this case is the fiscal situation of the state exchequer. In the case of EPF, both the employee and the employer contribute equally and the state is not in a financial position to bear the burden.

An official on condition of anonymity said since this is election time, there won’t be any immediate development on this issue.

“Probably after the elections, the state government may take a call. But this is not confirmed yet,” the official said.

During her Budget speech in last February, Banerjee placed the budget of approximately Rs 60,000 crore for salary expenditure and Rs 21,263 crore for pension and other retirement benefits, which is merely a hike of 4.45% and 8.35%, respectively, over the revised estimate of FY 2020-21.