EPF rate slash: Trade union body calls for an all-India strike on March 28-29
NEW DELHI: The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has called for an all-India strike on March 28-29 to oppose a proposal by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to lower the interest rate on retirement savings for its 6.4 crore subscribers from 8.5% to 8.1%, the lowest since 1977-78.
The AITUC contended that the government was abdicating its responsibility to provide social security to industrial workers and leaving them to the “vagaries of financial markets”.
“No amount of playing around with financial markets will help the crores of toiling people, who are rightfully demanding their share in the national wealth, which they alone produce,”
it said.
EPF rate slash: EPFO demanded the continuation of the 8.5% interest rate for the year ending March 31, 2022
The trade union said that all employee representatives in the Central Board of Trustees (EPFO) demanded the continuation of the 8.5% interest rate for the year ending March 31, 2022. “The chairman has recommended 8.1 % but the final call will be taken by the finance ministry,”
“Any reduction in interest rate amounts to reducing the protection offered by PF accumulations in old age, a problem faced by all senior citizens who hope to support themselves by interest on their savings,”
read a statement by the AITUC.
The organization also urged the government to contribute to social security funds.