The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has plans to bring the PF service to all workers in the unorganized sector to ensure minimum wage rights and social security to all workers.

Central PF commissioner K. K. Jalan said that the EPFO would launch a plan to provide a universal PF number to all unorganized workers in December.

The social security number will work like a bank account. When a worker will move to a new employer, the new employer will be responsible for feeding in the worker's number into the system. The worker's PF account will thus continue to work.

As many as six crore people are working in India's construction sector alone, but less than 30 lakh of those workers have social security cover.

All employers who have a workforce of more than 20 people will have to implement the system.

Mr. Jalan also announced that the EPFO is pushing the government to make companies' defaults on PF remittance an economic offence.

Speaking on the topic, he said, "This (default in PF remittance) is one of the most serious economic offences and we are in talks with the Economic Offences Wing to include it in the list of economic offences."

The retirement fund body is also planning to clear 90 per cent of claims within 15 days of receiving requests for the same, instead of the current 30-day period.