Employers Not Required To Pay Full Salary To Employees; Govt Withdraws Order

In a shocking development, Govt has withdrawn their order of March 29th, 2020, regarding payment of salaries and wages to employees.

After this, employers are no longer required by law to full salaries to their employees.

This is a bad news for all employees, but a very crucial, and critical development for all employers.

Govt. Withdraws Order For Full Salary

Via a notification, Govt had ordered on March 29th that all employees must be paid full salaries by their employers: Even if the employee is not able to come to work, and/or doing partial work.

This notification was made since the entire nation was under a strict lockdown, and it would have been not possible for every employee to come to work.

Now, this order has been withdrawn.

Ministry of Home Affairs issued a new order: “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.”

What Does This Mean For Employees?

This is a negative development for all employees in India.

After this new order, any employer can wish to withhold or stop or pay less salary to their employees, citing coronavirus impact.

This new order means that employees won’t be able to file complaints against their employer, for not paying full salary, or for not paying any salary at all.

What Does This Mean For Employers?

For employers, this has come down as a big relief.

Employers were seeking an economic stimulus related to the payment of wages, since several businesses are shut down, and they were finding it hard to pay full salaries to their employeees.

But since they received no economic stimulus, they were worried.

Now, after this new order has been passed, the employers are not legally mandated to pay full wages to their employees.

For factories and businesses which are closed down, this is a welcome relief.

We just hope that employers don’t misuse and exploit this new order, and deny salaries to their employees, using coronavirus as an excuse.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.