Indian government decides to pay 50% of three months’ salary to employe

New Delhi: A report was recently published claiming that millions of people faced a loss of employment, because of the lockdown. The union government has decided to pay the amount equivalent to 50% of the three months’ salary, to people who have lost their employment in such a manner, as an unemployment allowance. It is said that 4 million employees may benefit from this. This facility will be given to people registered with the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), as members.

Lockdown had to be imposed to control the spread of Coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people from various sectors lost their employment during the lockdown. In April, the rate of unemployment had reached 23.52%. April reported 18.9 million jobs lost, the highest during the lockdown. In May, one million people lost their jobs. Therefore, the union government has taken this decision to pay unemployment allowance. This allowance will be paid to employees who are members of the ESIC.

Government has relaxed the rules for this allowance. The employees can claim 50% of their three months’ salary, during the period 24th March and 31st December. But to be eligible, they have to be members of the ESIC for at least two years. Moreover, they must contribute to the ESIC, for at least 78 days, during the period October 2019 to 31st March 2020.

One more rule has been changed. The employee was receiving his funds from the ESIC after 90 days from retirement. Santosh Gangwar, Union Minister for Labour, said that this period has been reduced to 30 days. It is claimed that this will bring relief to nearly 4 million workers, and will give some consolation to the people who have lost their employment. The ESIC scheme is applicable for employees drawing monthly wages less than ₹21,000.

While announcing allowance for the people losing employment, owing to the lockdown, the government has also established a new system for easing the process for government jobs. ‘National Recruitment Agency’ is the name of the new agency. Common eligibility test is proposed to be conducted, for selection in Railway, Banks and various departments of Staff Selection Commission.

The process of filling millions of empty posts at the ‘B’ and ‘C’ levels, in departments of the central government, is handled by 20 institutions. Each institution conducts independent eligibility tests. Nearly 25 to 30 million candidates have to take these tests. These tests are held in different months, causing loss of time and money to the candidates. To reduce these troubles, all the 20 institutions have been merged into one entity, the ‘National Recruitment Agency’. Candidates will be eligible to take this test after completing 10th and 12th standards. The test will be conducted in at least 12 languages.