Byju's, the Bengaluru-based edtech firm that has, in recent days, made headlines for all the wrong reasons, has been making delayed provident fund (PF) payments since October last year. Several ex-staffers, too, have accused Byju's of not depositing the PF component of their salaries in their Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) accounts.
According to reports, the company has been making PF contributions with a lag of three to four months. For example, the PF contributions for December 2022, January 2023, February, and March, were made only on June 19. Even then, not everyone has received this payment.For April, only 3,164 staffers had their PF contributions credited, that too after a delay of 36 days; for May, on the other hand, only 31 people got their due.The data also shows that only about 10,000-13,000 employees received their PF in January, February, and March. Additionally, in several cases, the money due for 2020, was paid only this month. The EPFO guidelines mandate that for each month, organisations must credit provident fund payments by the 15th of the following month. The employer must cover the damages if a worker's contribution gets delayed. The delay may also attract a penalty of 5% to 100% of the amount.