Struggling with Unpaid Salaries and PF: Can I Take Action to Secure My Dues?

Hi, I was working in a company with approximately 150 employees. We had multiple issues regarding salaries, and most of the people have resigned from the company. I resigned from this organization in November and am still searching for a job.

Pending Salaries and Work from Home Transition

We have pending salaries from April 2020. We moved to WFH mode in March 2020 before the lockdown. At that time, we had minor salary issues; the salary was coming in a 50-55 day cycle, and nobody cared as this had been happening for some time.

Since then, everything collapsed during the lockdown, and it kept adding up for months. It was the peak of the lockdown, and there were no opportunities around, so everyone stayed with the company. By November, it became unsustainable, hence most of us resigned. So, by the end of November, nine months' salary is pending.

Provident Fund Issues

Additionally, the company has not paid PF for almost two years, out of which they have deducted for nine months from August 2019 to March 2020 (FY-2019-2020). In FY 20-21, since salaries are pending, I don't know whether they will remit the PF or include it in the salary and pay us (if they are paying). The latest information we have is that as of December 2020, the managers were asked to resign, and the company is closing down, although nothing official has been communicated, and there are still employees yet to resign. The company is not marked as "exit" for any of the employees in the EPFO system.

Additionally, there is no response to queries as there is no proper HR in the company now. So, it's unclear who will approve any requests raised via the EPFO site.

Guidance Required

I require guidance on the following queries:

1. Can I mark exit myself and withdraw money from PF since I resigned in November?
2. If I get a new job or mark exit myself on the EPFO site, can the previous employer (the above company) still remit the money for the old period?
3. What can be done legally to get the pending PF and salary? The company doesn't have any physical assets in India. The owners are not Indians (part of an overseas group), and hence Indian directors are employees, not owners.

Any guidance on the above will be very helpful for a group of people.

Below are the corrected answers to your questions:

1. Yes, you can mark your exit yourself and file an application for the withdrawal of the PF contribution.

2. Yes, if you mark your exit, the previous company can remit the balance EPF contribution to your account.

3. Even then, you can take legal action and file a complaint with the EPF department. If they are a company registered under the Companies Act, they cannot wind up the company without paying the dues of the employees. Take appropriate action immediately.

Thank you very much for the advice. Sorry for the late reply. This is a ROC registered company. One question on this: we are planning to raise a complaint with RoC to keep them informed about these issues in case the company is going to close down. Will that help?

One more thing to add is we went as a group to file a complaint in the Labour office. They didn't entertain us by telling us we are not registered as a Union, so we cannot do so. They also asked us to file individually. There were already two cases filed by ex-employees, but from the company's side, they attended only one hearing. The last two times they didn't appear. So, we are skeptical about filing the case as the same might be our fate too. With all these: absence in Labour office meetings, PF pending, salary pending, etc., can we file a case in the Civil Court?