Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said that the Department of Labour has been instructed to implement a system where private sector employees can themselves get membership of the Provident Fund.
If an organisation has not referred the concerned employee as a member of the Provident Fund, the employee can go directly to the Labour Department and get the membership of the Provident Fund by filling an application form.
Thereafter, the Department of Labour will inform the relevant institution to levy the Provident Fund contribution.
The Minister also said that most of the cases heard in the courts are related to the Employee Provident Funds and this could be largely avoided under the new system. Statistics from the Department of Labour revealed that three years ago there were over 94,000 organisations that paid Provident Fund benefits, but that number has decreased to nearly 80,000.
It has also been reported that institutions are not registered to credit Provident Funds for the majority of private sector employees.