ESIC Alert: Amazing news for all contractual employees; ESIC approves salary payment

ESIC Alert: Amazing news for all contractual employees of Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). The Director General of ESIC has accorded his approval for payment of salary/wages to contractual manpower involved in housekeeping, maintenance and other such jobs, according to a circular issued by the organisation. The approval has been granted for payment of salary for those employees who have not been able to attend the ESIC offices since the imposition of the lockdown.

The circular further says that the strength of the employees will remain same which was prevailing as on 24 March 2020. Only those employees will be paid who were under deployment in ESIC offices when the declaration for putting lockdown measures was announced by the government at the states and Centre.

The circular further said that only those contractual employees of hospitals will be considered on duty for payment of wages whose residential areas were sealed as containment zones and no movement was allowed in those areas due to which they could not attend their duties.    

For those hospitals which have been working despite lockdown measures in place, the salary will be considered on the basis of their attendance marked at the hospitals, the circular said. ESIC hospitals have been functioning even during the lockdown as they fall under the ambit of essential services.

The move comes in the wake of a direction issued by the Department of Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance, which said that all contractual employees shall be treated as “on duty” during their period of absence on account of the lockdown measures in place. The contractual employees would be given their wages/pay accordingly, it further said.

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The complete lockdown situation has resulted in a number of contractual, casual and outsourced staff, being forced to stay at home. The ESIC circular further said that the direction issued by the ministry will apply in all cases of lockdown announced by States or the Centre in relation to Covid -19.