COVID-19: Ministry of Labour and Employment issues advisory against cutting salaries of employees

In the wake of rising cases of COVID-19 in the country, the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Monday issued an advisory to all the employers of public and private establishments to not cut salaries of the employees.

In an official release, the Ministry said: "The world is facing a catastrophic situation due to outbreak of COVID-19 and in order to combat this challenge, coordinated joint efforts of all sections of the society are required. In view of the above, there may be incidence that employee/worker's services are dispensed with on this pretext or the employee/worker are forced to go on leave without wage/salaries."

The release further stated that in the backdrop of such a challenging situation, all the employers of public and private establishments may be advised to extend their coordination by not terminating their employers, particularly casual or contractual workers from any job or reduce their wages.

"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," the release added.

The Ministry also said that the termination of any employee from the job or reduction in wages in this scenario will 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.

According to the Health Ministry, a total of 415 individuals have reported positive for coronavirus in the country. Seven people have died due to the deadly virus, while 23 people have been discharged from hospitals.