Contract Lecturer in Govt College for 6 Years Without PF – What Should I Do?

Sir, I am a contract basis lecturer working in a government engineering college in Maharashtra. The institute is paying me a consolidated salary of Rs 30,000. I have been working for the last 6 years, but the employer has not deducted PF from my salary, and they have not even created our PF account. Please guide.

Perhaps the institute has kept you out of PF membership because you are drawing a salary higher than the PF coverage limit (Rs. 15,000/month currently). There is no illegality committed.

Yes, sir, but in the same organization, the regular employees having a salary higher than this are subjected to CPF and other deductions.

Thank you.

Okay, then there is a case of discrimination between regular employees and contract staff, both working at the same establishment. However, the statutory applicability of the PF Act is limited to Rs. 15,000/- (likely to be extended to Rs. 21,000), so the PF authorities may not be able to provide significant assistance. Therefore, no real help is available in this matter.

Statutory Limit and Government Departments

This statutory limit of Rs 15,000, etc., does not apply to Government Departments. In such colleges, the appointments will be purely ad hoc, even though these employees work for years. Their service rules, or the Maharashtra Service Rules, do not provide for the payment of PF contributions to ad hoc employees. For more details, you are requested to refer to the service rules.

Employer Obligations Under the EPF Act

Please be informed that an employer is under an obligation to pay PF to their employees only when the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act is applicable to them. In this case, the employer is the Maharashtra State Government, and the institutions coming under the state are not covered by the EPF and MP Act. The Government has statutory provident fund schemes which are entirely different from our EPF Schemes.