These professionals, in the beginning are hired for 11 months. EPFO would be represented by the firms in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), apart from handling property-related cases and taxation matters
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is ready to introduce 35 young legal professionals to assist for managing litigation and quick resolution of disputes, reported a media house.
These professionals, in the beginning are hired for 11 months. They will be working as researchers. Followed by the assessment of their performance, their services may be extended.
The statutory body has made such hiring for the first time, which functions under the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Before making a decision on trying it in its other departments, the retirement body wants to come to a conclusion as to how this process turns out to be. It includes departments like finance and social media.
The decision to hire legal experts was taken during March this year, said the report. The EPFO holds responsibility to deal with thousands of legal cases across the nation.
In the last month, EPFO had issued a request for proposal (RFP) to empanel law firms in order to deal with matters relating to the interpretation of various statutes like the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.
EPFO would be represented by the firms in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), apart from handling property-related cases and taxation matters.
After getting approval, these law firms will be empanelled for tenure of one year, initially. This may be extended to three years, the report added.
The EPFO is world’s one of the largest social security organisations. It consists of over 67 million contributory members and is making efforts towards automation and rationalising its workforce. It processed 45.8 million claims in FY21.