EPFO and ESIC have been advised to collate the data on job losses and wage cuts. As soon as information is collated a report can be introduced to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
This labour ministry initiative comes as stressed economic situation has raised fears of widespread layoffs/salary reductions in India’s organized sector and in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated appeals to employers to be considerate to employees.
Highlights
- Labor Ministry will acquire layoffs, wage deductions to research the results of lockdown.
- After amassing the data, the ministry will submit its report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- PM Modi had advised the trade not to lay off workers on this period of disaster.
- EPFO has 60 million subscribers, including pensioners.
- ESIC has over 30 million subscribers. (There is some overlap between the two sets.)
The Regional EPFO offices are asked to reach out to subscribers via telephone calls. For this purpose, The labour ministry, under the initiative of the Central Chief Labour Commissioner, has set up 20 call centres to record and resolve workers’ grievances related to salary cuts or job losses during the COVID-19 Crisis and Lockdown.
The target employees for this whole exercise is fairly large. EPFO has approx 60 million subscribers including pensioners and ESIC has over 30 million subscribers. Though there is some overlap between these two sets.
According to the Economic Times report, India has a workforce of nearly 500 million, of which over 10% or around 50 million, is in the organized sector. In its first relief package, the Centre had made a commitment of contributing for 3 months the mandatory 24% savings of some employees — those earning less than Rs 15,000 per month in firms where 90% of employees are getting salaries less than Rs 15,000. This, however, leaves a very large portion of organized sector employees out. India doesn’t offer automatic unemployment benefits to employees either.
What will be the PMO’s action after collecting the data on layoffs & pay-cuts is not announced?
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