Dear Baskar Sriraman,
The COVID-19 outbreak is an international disaster affecting millions of people across the globe day by day. The high density of population in countries like ours poses a great challenge to whatever preventive and curative measures are earnestly taken by our Central and State Governments. The nationwide curfew and shutdown imposed by the Government in the wake of a medical emergency, if continued indefinitely beyond April 14, 2020, may lead to the imposition of a Financial Emergency under Article 360 of the Constitution of India because recovery of the economy after restoration of normalcy in a day or two is certainly not possible. Therefore, a concerted action based on the different dimensions of the present problem, including its human side, is called for from all the stakeholders of the industry.
The Government's direction to pay wages to industrial employees for the lockdown period despite no work has to be viewed as only a temporary measure to avert immediate loss of earnings to millions of working masses. Do not simply undermine or lose sight of the announcement of the RBI regarding certain financial sops, the Government's move to bear the burden of the EPF contributions of both the employer and employee in respect of industrial establishments with less than 100 employees, the EPFO's announcement permitting a non-refundable advance of 75% of accumulation to employees, etc. Other remedial measures enabling the industry to cope with this unexpected and inevitable economic crisis consequent on the killer epidemic might be on the anvil. My humble submission, therefore, would be that instead of mulling over the legal consequences of non-compliance, the employers' positive efforts towards immediate compliance are the need of the hour. If there is a will, there is a way!