COVID-19: Don’t cut salary, terminate employees who can’t join duties: J&K’s Labour Commissioner

SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir’s Labour Commissioner Adur Rashid War on Sunday issued an advisory advocating that there should be “no termination or reduction in salary” of any employee who go on leave in the wake of fast spreading pandemic—COVID-19.

In a circular issued here, the advisory reads that as the world is facing a catastrophic situation due to the outbreak of COVID-19, and in order to combat this challenge, coordinated and joint efforts of all sections of the society are required.

“In view of the above, there may be incidence that employees/workers are not able to attend to their duties or the employer have no work to be done and therefore may be in process to dispense with the services of these employees, or the employees/workers may be forced to go on leave without wages/salaries in absence of work,” the advisory reads, adding that the termination of employees from the job or reduction in their wages in this scenario would further deepen the crisis and will not only weaken the financial condition of employees but also hamper the morale to combat their fight with this pandemic.

The advisory further reads that in the backdrop of such a challenging situation, all the employers, of public/private shops, establishments, industrial establishments, factories, mines projects and contractors etc in the UT shall extend their cooperation by not terminating their employee’s particular casual or contractual workers from job or reduce their wages.

“If any worker takes leave, he shall be deemed to be on duty without any consequential deduction in wages for this period,” the advisory reads.