Don’t lay off workers or cut salaries: Ministry

EPFO issues instructions on timely pension payments

24/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,NEW DELHI

The Union Labour and Employment Ministry has been reaching out to employers in the public and private sectors, asking them not to lay off workers or cut salaries due to the ongoing lockdown caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

In letters to the Secretaries of Central Ministries, State Chief Secretaries and employers’ associations sent over a few days up to Monday, the Ministry said employers were asked to “extend their cooperation by not terminating employees” in this “challenging situation”.

The Ministry said if any worker took leave, it should be “deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction of wages”. The same should apply to those working in an establishment that is ordered to shut down, the letter said.

“The termination of employee from the job or reduction of wages in this scenario would further deepen the crises and will not only weaken the financial condition of the employee but also hamper their morale to fight the epidemic,” the letter stated.

The Ministry tweeted on Monday: “Seeing the Coronavirus pandemic, advisory has been issued by the Labour Ministry to all the employers of public/private establishments to coordinate by not terminating their employees, particularly casual or contractual workers from job or reduce their wages.”

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation said in a statement that it had instructed its field offices to generate and reconcile the pension amounts and details for March by Wednesday.

The Finance Ministry announced that contractual labour and outsourced staff working for the Central government would be treated as “on duty” and paid as usual with no penalty.