Over 60 garment workers booked in Bengaluru as protests against PF waiting periods grow

Hundreds of garment workers in Peenya in Bengaluru protested against the new PF withdrawal rules on Wednesday, September 30. Police have registered multiple FIRs against over 60 of them. 

Workers from at least three garment factories in Peenya staged protests against the new rules which came into effect on July 1. Police lathicharged them, and detained some workers for several hours before filing cases against them. 

A senior police official said the Peenya police have registered the FIRs under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for "obstruction of duty of the police personnel, rioting, unlawful assembly, wrongful restraint, and damaging public property." 

The protests in Bengaluru are against the new PF scheme dated June 29, 2026. Under it, workers who leave employment must wait 12 months to access the remaining 25% of their PF savings, while workers with less than 10 years of service must wait 36 months to withdraw their Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) accumulation. 

Garment workers have also protested in Maddur, Shikaripura, Haveri, Tumakuru and Tiptur, besides Bommasandra in Bengaluru, in recent days. With the protests threatening to grow, Labour Minister Santhosh Lad has convened a meeting with all stakeholders on Thursday, October 1. 

On September 28, the Garment and Textile Workers' Union (GATWU) submitted a memorandum to the Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner demanding immediate withdrawal of the waiting periods. Signatures of around 5,000 workers, collected through a campaign led by garment women workers, were submitted along with it.

The union said the restrictions particularly harm low-wage workers. In Karnataka, 85 to 90% of garment workers are women. Many are the primary breadwinners of their families, face job insecurity and carry the double burden of paid and unpaid work. 

For many of them, PF is the only financial safety net, relied upon for medical emergencies, children's education, rent, marriage and other urgent family needs. The union called the restrictions an unjust attack on workers' right to access their own savings.