With around 200 hospitals functioning under the purview of the Nashik regional office of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the organisation has issued a recent warning to few of the hospitals.

The Nashik divisional office EPFO has expressed clear disappointment over the current PF norms implementation, even after they conducted a workshop for doctors of these private hospitals; to bring their staff under the coverage of PF. The regional office includes Nashik, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar districts.

The action by the EPFO demands an inquiry into the hospitals which have staff strength of minimum 20 persons, and have still not extended the PF scheme implementation.

As a step forward, EPFO is intending to initiate an inspection to find out the exact number of such defaulting hospitals.

Jagdish Tambe, the regional PF commissioner, EPFO, Nashik region, said, "It is mandatory for establishments with over 20 employees to provide PF benefits to them and the norm is applicable to private hospitals also. We have asked all private hospitals to provide the PF facilities to their employees. We have approached the Indian Medical Association and urged it to ensure its members abided by the norms.", as reported by the Times of India.

He added, "We have collected a list of around 200 private hospitals in the limits of the municipal corporation. As part of this, we conducted a workshop for doctors of the private hospital. But the response was poor. We have now decided to conduct a drive to inspect hospitals. We will inspect all types of employees and check whether they are on contract or are outsourced, regular and casual. We will take legal action against the private hospitals not providing the PF benefits to their employees."

Statistically, the PF scheme should cover about 9,700 employers or such health establishments across the five districts in Nashik region. Moreover, 10 lakh PF accounts and 1.10 lakh pensioners are registered with the EPFO's Nashik regional office.