Government withdraws order on compulsory wage payment by firms during lockdown

Over the past few days, the industry had petitioned the government to withdraw its order on compulsory wage payment as they were themselves facing cash crunches issues.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had issued a fresh set of guidelines which will be applicable from Monday. It has repealed the order dated 29.03.2020 which had talked about compulsory wage payment to workers during lock-down.

Statement issued by MHA:

"Save as otherwise provided in the guidelines annexed to this order, all order issued by the NEC (National Executive Committee) under section 10(2)(I) of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005, shall cease to have effect from 18.05.2020."

Employers have welcome the step, saying it was absolutely necessary especially in absence of grants from the government towards wage payment, whereas Trade union leaders have criticized the government's step to withdraw the order as there will be no wage payment from the employer as well as no wage subsidy from the government.