Urgent Help Needed: How to Handle EPF Linking and F&F Settlement Issues?

Employee PF Account Linking Issue

I have come across a problem and seek your help. One of our employees joined our organization on 31st August 2016 and left on 8th September 2016. After he resigned, we asked him many times and sent him numerous emails to cooperate with the F&F, but he didn't. He was supposed to receive 9 days' salary from us, but he didn't send us the no-due clearance certificate duly signed, which we mandatorily need to process F&F.

We sent him a legal notice, but still, he didn't send us that form. Finally, our management decided to pay him the salary without that paper, and we had already transferred that amount to his account a week ago. Now, I'm tasked with depositing his PF amount.

Problem with PF Amount Deposit

Initially, he informed us that he didn't have an EPF account earlier in his Form 11. However, when we proceeded with new registration/generation in UAN 2.0, we discovered that he was previously a member of the EPF scheme. This was due to a KYC error showing previous employment in the UAN database as we were doing individual registration, not in bulk. We found his last company's (let's say Company A) payslips from his file submitted during his joining with us, revealing that the UAN number was mentioned there, confirming his EPF membership.

Questions Regarding UAN Linking

1. Can we take that UAN number and link our establishment code with it as per the new rule? Despite him declaring in Form 11 that he wasn't a member, should we go by his payslips and UAN number instead?

2. Upon searching the UAN database in the new portal, we observed that he is currently working in another organization (let's say Company B) post his departure from us. The record displayed in the unified portal for the employer indicates that he joined the new organization on 3rd October 2016. If we aim to link our company with his UAN, situated between Company A and B, can we backdate the linking with UAN and between two companies?

I have been in this role for the past year and have never encountered such a problem before, so I am urgently seeking help from senior personnel.

Please advise as this is very urgent.

Thanks in advance.

As per your information, the employee worked only for 9 days. You had not indicated his salary, and there is a minimum eligible working days/contribution towards the PF account for both employer and employee. You should not have included him in the payroll for that month and should have withheld his salary for those 9 days, as I am sure your company must have a notice period for resignation.

In the midst of a busy and hectic schedule in HR, you should declare the person as an absconder (despite your legal notices, he has not responded) and be done with it. Nobody is going to question you further if the employee willfully disappears. I believe you are spending too much time unnecessarily, groping in the dark for no reason. Just dismiss the issue and proceed further.

Regards, Sridharmala