The Ministry of Labour and Employment said there may be incidence that a person's services are dispensed with on the pretext of COVID-19 pandemic and they may be forced to go on leave without wage or salaries.
The Centre on Monday asked all private and public establishments across the country to ensure that no person loses their job because of the novel coronavirus crisis.
In a letter written to chief secretaries of all states, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said there may be incidence that a person's services are dispensed with on the pretext of COVID-19 pandemic and they may be forced to go on leave without wage or salaries.
"In the backdrop of such challenging situation, all the employers of public/private establishments may be advised to extend their coordination by not terminating their employees, particularly casual or contractual workers from the job or reduce their wages," the letter said.
"If any worker takes leave, he should be deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages for this period. Further, if the place of employment is to be made non-operational due to COVID-19, the employees of such unit will be deemed to be on duty," it said.
"The termination of an employee from the job or reduction in 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 combat their fight with this epidemic. In view of this, you are requested to issue necessary Advisory to Employers/Owners of all the establishments in the state," it added.
The ministry has also asked the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to ensure that the pension to 65 Lakh pensioners is released by the end of the month.
EPFO is disbursing monthly pension to more than 65 Lakh pensioners every month under the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995.
"Due to the coronavirus pandemic, lockdown has been declared in various parts of the country. In order to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the pensioners on account of the prevalent situation, Central Provident Fund Commissioner has directed the field offices of EPFO to generate and reconcile pensioners’ details and pension amount statements for the current month by 25th March, 2020," the ministry said.
He further directed that the pension should be forwarded to the banks in advance so that the monthly pension is credited into the account of the pensioners during the month of March itself.
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