‘ESI should pay wages to workers during lockdown’

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 13

Industrialists under the banner of the Pathankot Road Manufacturers’ Association have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said MSMEs were not so strong to pay workers from their own pockets. They have requested that the Employee State Insurance (ESI) should pay the wages to the workers during the lockdown.

The letter reads, “Our MSMEs are not strong that they are capable of paying to the workers during the lockdown period. However, the MSMEs are still paying some amount to their workers, along with the ration, and are ensuring that they are at ease and there is no shortage of essential items.”

In the letter, they said the ESI had crores of rupees, which was lying in the form of FDRs with banks and the government. “The ESI is collecting money from workers and the industry on the account of insurance. Since Covid is a medical emergency, the ESI should come forward to help the insured workers from whom the ESI is collecting some contribution,” the letter further reads.

Shant Kumar, general secretary of the association, has also mentioned in the letter that it has been declared by the government that the PF contribution would be borne by the government where the total number of employers is less than 100. “It is requested that all the MSMEs should be given this benefit so that the MSMEs are able to survive. It is to be mentioned that EPFO is having an unclaimed fund to the tune of thousands of crores and this fund should be used to pay the workers and thus helping MSMEs,” he added.