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by Ananda Kannangara

Private sector employers who are violating labour laws, implemented by the Labour Department on the remitting of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) deductions to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka will be prosecuted under a special program initiated recently.

It has been revealed that more than 40 per cent private sector institutions in the country are still ignoring this Labour rule and utilising the already deducted EPF money on various other private ventures.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer Labour Minister Athauda Seneviratne said that despite whatever amendments of the EPF Act brought by Parliament time to time on this issue from 1958, many employers are still in the habit of violating the rules for their benefits.

"This situation has badly affected not only the Government but also a large number of employees who are deprived of numerous benefits granted by the Government to EPF holders," he said.

Quoting an example, the Minister elaborated how a certain large scale mercantile institution, located outside the city of Colombo with a staff of eight had not remitted its EPF deductions to the Central Bank for a considerable period.

"This was revealed during a search operation, carried out by a group of Labour Officials on EPF defaulters," he said. It was reported that although this particular establishment had duly deducted eight per cent from the salaries of the workers it had not been remitted to the Central Bank.

However, the Minister requested the entire private sector employers to keep a close tab on this important issue and make arrangements to remit their EPF deductions to the EPF Authority at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka within the stipulated period.

When contacted, a senior Labour Department official said that employers are legally bound to deduct 8 per cent from the salaries of each employee as EPF and send it to the Central Bank by adding another 12 per cent.

He also said that any employer is bound to register the employee with the EPF Department at the Central Bank within 14 days he joined the service. The official forms in this regard could be obtained from the nearest area Labour office.

"Employers who do not comply with this are fined Rs. 1,000 and liable to six months imprisonment, imposed by the judiciary according to the EPF Act," he said.

However he expressed his confidence that most of the EPF defaulters could be cracked down in the near future with the assistance of adequate Labour officials already deployed by the Department.

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