After HC stay order, Kerala govt goes for an ordinance to cut salary of employees

New Delhi: The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to issue an ordinance empowering it to deduct salaries of its employees to mobilise funds to fight COVID-19 in the state.

The move comes a day after Kerala High Court staying Pinarayi Vijayan’s government order for deducting salary of its employees.

On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court stayed the state’s executive order deferring salaries, saying it lacked legal backing. In that order, the Left Front govt had said in the order that 6.days of employee salaries a month would be deferred for the next 5 months to raise funds to tackle COVID-19.

Ordinance to cut 25% salary of state govt employees

After the cabinet meeting today, Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac told reporters that as per the ordinance, the state government has been empowered to defer 25 per cent of the salary of its employees in the event of a disaster.

“As per this ordinance, the state government has been empowered to defer 25 per cent of the salary of the government employees, in case of a disaster.

The Minister, however, made it clear that 25 per cent of the salary would not be deferred and the state government would go ahead with the earlier six-day cut itself.

Kerala FM blames Centre for falling revenues

Kerala Minister TM Thomas Isaac however pinned blame on the Centre for taking such measure in fight against Covid-19.

“We just don’t have enough revenues. Central government transfers are just not sufficient to pay all salaries, let alone pensions. Unlike other states, Kerala government is not cutting salaries, we are deferring payments,” Kerala FM told a leading news channel.