Inadequate manpower in the Employees? Provident Fund Organisation coupled with lopsided and unscientific structure of field offices have resulted in a manifold increase in customer complaints, particularly with regard to recoveries and pension refunds. According to the ministry of labour and organisation, the number of pending cases are over 30,000 till March this year.
As per the EPFO?s estimates there has been an increase of over 298% in claims settled per clerk between 1980-81 and 2004-05 as the organisation which touches the lives of at least 4 crore subscribers, has not been able to recruit the necessary number of people.
In 1980-81 one single clerk was responsible for as many as 2062 EPF members which went up by 98% to 4088 members per clerk in 2004-05. Again, one clerk handled the claims of at least 129 subscribers in 1980-81. This went up by a whopping 298% to a single clerk settling a huge 513 claims in 2004-05.
Among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of pending cases at 5,326 followed by Punjab at 2,333, UP at 2,235 and Andhra Pradesh with 2,185 cases waiting to be resolved as on March this year.
The National Productivity Council which was commissioned to do a systems study and recommend integrated staffing norms, suggested adding more than 31,000 people at the regional, sub-regional and accounts offices which is estimated to increase the wage bill of EPFO by at least 40%.
As per the report of XLRI, the present extant ratio of 1:34 for officers and staff translates into a very thin supervisory layer and also implies that there is less supervision and greater autonomy down the line.