The Employees’ Trust Fund was established on 1st March 1981 under the provisions of  ETF Act No. 46 of 1980. The Fund is administrated by the Employees’ Trust Fund Board and at present the ETF Board is functioning under Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization & National Policies. The provisions of the Act shall apply to every state & private sector undertaking belonging to any class or category of state or private sector undertaking as is specified  in an order made by the Hon. Minister and published in the Gazette.

Self-employed persons and migrant workers also could contribute to the Fund on their own and obtain membership. At present the active membership of the fund is approximately 2.6 Million  and  covered by 79,000 employers.  The value of the members fund was about Rs. 406 Billion as at 31st December 2021. To decentralize the ETFB activities and to provide a better service to its members the ETFB  introduced a Branch Network in 1995.