The government has asked public and private establishment employers not to cut salaries or lay off employees during the coronavirus pandemic. In view of Covid-19, there may be incidents where services of employees or workers may be dispensed with on the pretext of the disease or employees may be forced to go on leave without pay, the ministry of labour and employment said. In the backdrop of such a challenging situation, all employers of public or private establishments may be advised not ..

Workers taking leave should be deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages and if the place of employment is made non-operational due to Covid-19, the employees of such organisations shall be deemed to be on duty, it said.

The termination of an employee or acut in salary will only further deepen the crisis and will not only weaken their financial condition, but also hamper their morale to combat this epidemic, the advisory said.

Meanwhile, the EPFO said that the Central Provident Fund Commissioner has directed field offices of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation to generate and reconcile pensioners’ details and pension amount statements for the current month by March 25 to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to pensioners because of the lockdown across the country. The details are be forwarded to the banks in advance so that the monthly pension is credited to the accounts of the pensioners in time.