Owing to COVID-19 impact, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has relaxed its norms and decided to pay 50 per cent of average wages to the employees for maximum 90 days unemployment.

It shall apply to those workers who lost their jobs between 24 March 2020 and 31 December 2020. This decision will be beneficial to millions of workers.

The Indian apparel industry has welcomed this decision and thanked the Government for the same.

Raja. M. Shanmugham, President, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA), said that from the Day 1 of the pandemic, we were requesting the Government to advice ESIC to pay the wages from its corpus fund.

This crucial financial measure given to the employees will be largely helpful to them and also overcome the difficulties being encountered by the employees during this period of unemployment.

Instead of the claim being forwarded by the last employer, the insured person (IP) can submit the claim directly to the ESIC branch office. The payment shall be made directly to his bank account.