A frightening revelation about the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF)

The Frontline Socialist Party reveals that the current National People's Power (NPP) government is attempting to merge the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) and the Employees' Trust Fund (ETF). Mr. Kumar Gunaratnam, the leader of the party, points out that the Cabinet, which met on the fifteenth day, has passed a proposal to merge these two funds, and that this is part of an intention to plunder the funds belonging to the employees.

During a recent discussion, the party leadership noted that this move has placed the greatest financial security held by the working people of this country for many years at severe risk.

Mr. Pubudu Jayagoda, the Education Secretary of the Frontline Socialist Party, states that these two funds are maintained for two different purposes, and merging them would result in employees losing their benefits. He likens the government's proposed special mechanism, which combines government and private sector involvement to control these funds, to 'handing over the chicken coop to the fox.' The party emphasizes that under the guise of preventing the government from borrowing from the fund, the current administration is preparing to hand over the custodianship of these employee funds to capitalists in the private sector of this country, which would cause the real value of the funds to decline and members' money to fall into serious danger.

There is a history of opposition trade unions, as well as parties like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the National People's Power (NPP), struggling for many years to protect the Employees' Provident Fund. During the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, an attempt was made to seize this Provident Fund for the government, but that attempt was thwarted amidst massive protests against it, which included the death of a private sector employee named Roshen Chanaka due to police firing. Mr. Duminda Nagamuwa of the Frontline Socialist Party points out that the current rulers are preparing to carry out the same process that the Rajapaksa government was unable to accomplish back then.

In light of this situation, the party leadership has discussed the essential need to inform the general public of the country about the risks faced by the relevant funds. During this discussion, led by Kumar Gunaratnam, Pubudu Jayagoda, Duminda Nagamuwa, and Chameera Koswatta, it was decided to unite workers and launch a massive struggle against this. Accordingly, the responsibility for primarily educating and organizing the working people on this matter has been assigned to Mr. Duminda Nagamuwa.