Aanchal Magazine

The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) plans to set up a 24-hour multilingual “Contact Centre” with the aim of providing a single window service or grievance redressal mechanism to subscribers seeking to lodge complaints.

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The move to set up a unified call center for its nearly seven crore active subscribers comes after the social media platform faced a backlash in recent months over delays in resolving complaints and rising rejection rates of redressal requests.

EPFO has floated a tender to set up this contact center which will operate 24×7 and 365 days, with quality personnel, to act as a robust system to replace EPFO's Complaint Registration Portal (EPFIGMS) with a more advanced and sophisticated complaint system.

“Multiple channels [உதவி எண், பல்வேறு அலுவலகங்களின் லேண்ட்லைன் தொலைபேசிகள், நேர்காணல் சேவைகள், குறைகளை பதிவு செய்யும் இணையதளங்கள், வாட்ஸ்அப், சமூக ஊடகங்கள் (பேஸ்புக், ட்விட்டர், இன்ஸ்டாகிராம் போன்றவை), நேரடி சேவைகள், சாட்பாட் (ChatBot), UMANG, மின்னஞ்சல்கள் போன்றவை]”, seeks to enable problem solving by linking EPFO's head office with zonal offices and regional offices, proactively address stakeholder issues and inform them on a real-time basis, the EPFO ​​tender document said.

Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Read, Telugu and Urdu. Listed in BFO tender.

“EPFO is looking to transform EPFO ​​Helpline into an integrated complaint management system with a new complaint registration software and improve speed and quality of service by automating common requests from issue to resolution and put in place necessary channels to manage, monitor and improve subscriber satisfaction through grievance redressal,” the tender said. The document says.

Earlier, EPFO ​​started a helpline with a toll-free number (1800118005) which was later replaced by a short code (14470) to resolve queries and provide information regarding its services. However, the helpline number is often unreachable.

Queries sent by Read to the Ministry of Labor and Employment regarding the existing helpline facility and the operational status of the proposed new call center did not receive any response.

With the proposed call center, EPFO ​​will replace the existing grievance registrar portal EPFiGMS with more advanced registration and resolution software. “The objective is to enable EPFO ​​to provide automated responses to regular and common requests and queries through e-mails, WhatsApp, social media, chatbot. (It) enables EPFO ​​to use incoming/outgoing calls, respond to stakeholders, get their feedback, miss It will enable us to call back and use our omnichannel to attend calls,” the tender document said.

Bidders must have “executed at least two call center projects of 500 seats each in the last three years from the date of invitation of tender (EOI). The call center should now be operational,” says the EPFO ​​tender.

EPFO is in the process of revamping its software solutions. Last month, the Center for Advanced Computer Development (C-DAC), a wing of the Ministry of Information Technology (IT), which is developing a central information technology system for EPFO, wrote to the Ministry of Labor and Employment regarding the delay in getting the key software intervention to meet the ministry's requirement to reduce the number of rejected claims.

The IT Ministry is learned to have told the Labor Ministry that although the scheme will be launched in January 2023, C-Doc is yet to receive certain requirements from the EPFO. “This delays subsequent design and development stages with C-Doc,” the letter said.

The high rate of rejection of claims by EPFO ​​is worrisome, especially since more claims have been rejected in recent months. In February, Read reported that rejection rates of EPF final settlement have risen from around 13 per cent in 2017-18 to nearly 34 per cent in 2022-23, meaning one in every three claims are rejected.

According to official data, of the total 73.87 lakh claims received for final settlement in 2022-23, 33.8 per cent (24.93 lakh) were rejected, 46.66 lakh were settled and 2.18 lakh remained as “final balance”. Over the years, there has been a steady improvement in the rejection rate – it was around 13 per cent in 2017-18; 18.2 percent in 2018-19; 24.1 percent in 2019-20; 30.8 percent in 2020-21; and 35.2 percent in 2021-22.

EPFO officials told The Read that a major reason for rejection of claims was the complete shift to online mode of processing them. Earlier, according to them, verification of documents for claims would be done on the part of companies and then forwarded to EPFO. Now, it is linked with Aadhaar and 99 per cent claims are resolved through the online portal.

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