The Karnataka High Court’s ruling on foreign workers covered by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and its pension plans has the EPFO “actively evaluating the course of action” to be followed, the organization said on Tuesday.
“The ruling concerns the particular clauses for foreign workers found to conflict with Article 14 of the Constitution in Paragraph 83 of the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme, 1952, and Paragraph 43A of the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995. In an official statement, the EPFO stated that it is “actively evaluating the course of action in response to this judgment.”
At the moment, India has social security agreements with twenty-one nations. Employees’ social security benefits are guaranteed under these agreements. According to EPFO, social security benefits are maintained for nationals of these nations who work within each other’s borders.
The goal of these agreements is to ensure that workers’ social security benefits continue when they are employed elsewhere. These agreements are critical to India’s efforts to harness its population dividend and promote international mobility. According to the statement, the EPFO is responsible for carrying out these social security agreements in India.
Notably, these agreements are framed to guarantee the uninterrupted social security coverage of employees during their international employment. These agreements are crucial for India to promote International mobility and leverage the demographic dividend.
The agreements must adhere to internationally recognized principles and are not necessarily restricted by wage ceilings applicable to domestic EPF members, it stated. The EPFO which serves as the operational agency in India for such social security agreements acknowledged the recent judgement by Karnatak High Court.
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