Over 1,200 private security agencies were found to have violated EPFO laws during 2014-15, Parliament was informed. In the previous fiscal, 2013-14, 869 such firms were found to have violated the Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. In 2012-13, their number was 667. Instances of violation of the Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 and schemes framed thereunder and Employee State Insurance Act 1948 by 1,260 private security agencies during 2014-15 have come to the notice of EPFO and ESIC, Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The Act is implemented by the retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which runs social security schemes for over six crore organised sector workers. During the last fiscal, the maximum number of such violations were detected in Karnataka (222), followed by Uttar Pradesh (187) and Madhya Pradesh (131). As per the reply, as much as Rs 29.57 crore of provident fund dues were pending against these security firms in the last fiscal compared to Rs 16.16 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 152.94 crore in 2012-13.
