On death of an employee, please obtain death certificate and place it on record. As per Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 an employee's nominee is eligible for payment of gratuity even if the deceased has not completed 5 years service. The condition of 5 year service is for living employees. On death, the nominees get benefit of gratuity irrespective of whether 5 year service completed or not. The nominees are also eligible for pension under the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 which is linked to the Provident Fund of the Employee. So on death of the employee, please work out gratuity, pay it to the nominee (spouse or parent if the deceased was unmarried &c.); obtain application for payment of PF dues and also deposit linked insurance (present rate Rs.60,500) from the Employees Provident Fund Organisation and forward it to the concerned EPFO office. Also obtain application from the family members of the deceased members for payment of pension in Form 10-D and forward it to the EPFO with details of the remittance of pension contribution which is linked to one's provident fund. Pension under EPS 1995 is eligible irrespective of one's length of service. The only condition applies is the deceased should be member of the provident fund. All members of PF are necessarily members of EPS 1995.
These are the duties of the HR. The bereaved family may not be aware of their rights and may not be in a proper frame of mind to claim all these benefits. The HR of the last employer firm is expected to assist them.