No wages deduction and No termination for employees during the Lockdown due to COVID-19.

There is a principle for employees that “No Work No Pay” on normal days, this principle is followed but in these crises due to COVID-19, it cannot be invoked.

Labor Ministry, on March 20, announced these directions to the employers’ associations that no wages deduction and no termination for their absence. During this lockdown, if any workers take leave then they should be “deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages and if the employment place is made non-operational then the employees in that area will be deemed to be on duty.

On March 29, 2020, Government of India ordered that any deduction of wages during the lockdown will be treated as a legal offence, because in this situation, the principle of “No work no pay” cannot be invoked and if it will then it will treated as legal offence.

Government of India took this step to avoid the migrant workers, provocation by the absence of work and their income and also removal from their residential places and this leads a panic emigration and this violates the lockdown order.

The Home Ministry fixed a National Lockdown from March 21 and also invoked the two Acts that are: the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 because in this Act, it is mentioned to effectively implement the lockdown and also issued an economic hardship of the migrant workers.

In India, around 90 percent of the workers involved in unorganized sector by considering this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said publicly on Thursday that employers should allow their employees as much as possible that ‘work from home’ and also appealed to not deduct their wages and also not terminate them during this lockdown. And few State Government that are Maharashtra and Delhi ordered shutdown all establishment or factories as a matter of precaution for does not spread the virus further.