Many EPFO ​​subscribers are contributing at a starting salary of Rs 15,000 per month. (file)

New Delhi:

As many as 1,20,279 persons have applied online to opt for higher pension under the Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95) till March 9, 2023, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

In November last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) to give subscribers as well as pensioners four months to contribute their actual salary to EPS-95.

Many EPFO ​​members are contributing at a limit of Rs 15,000 per month (pensionable salary) which is less than their actual salary. This option will enable the beneficiaries to get higher pension eventually.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Labor and Employment Rameshwar Teli said, “As on 09.03.2023, 1,20,279 applications/combined option applications were made online by employees on the Unified Portal of EPFO.”

The total number of beneficiaries will depend on the number of employees exercising the combined option and the number of eligible employees as per the directions given in the Supreme Court judgment dated November 4, 2022, the minister explained.

He said that the quantum of monthly pension payment for such pensioners would depend on the number of eligible members exercising the option of pension on higher pay.

As per the directions issued by EPFO ​​in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment, the joint option of pension on higher wages is available only to those employees, where the contribution of the employee and the employer was on the actual salary in excess of the prevailing wage ceiling and did not exercise the joint option. Had done Para 11(3) of pre-amendment EPS-95 (since deleted) while being a member of EPS-95 and was a member before 1st September, 2014 and continued to be a member on or after 1st September, 2014 , They said.

In another reply to the House, the Minister said that a total of 28.64 crore unorganized workers have been registered on the e-Labour portal till March 10, 2023.

He said that till March 31, 2022, a total of 3,250 representations have been registered in the Grievance Management System claiming accidental death/disability by the e-Labour registrars.

He also informed the House that as of March 13, 2023, 2.79 crore domestic and domestic workers have registered on the e-Shramuk portal, out of which 2.67 crore are women.

In another reply, Rameshwar Teli said that as a step towards the implementation of all the four labor codes, rules need to be framed by the Central Government as well as the State Governments.

The Central Government and several States/Union Territories (UTs) have pre-published rules under the four Labor Codes.

As per information available, five, eight, eight and 10 States/UTs have not yet made pre-published draft rules under the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Social Security Code, 2020 and the Occupational Safety Code . , Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, respectively, he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)