Govt shelves social media-linked salary communication plan

The Union government will not allow social media platforms such as WhatsApp to be used for salary communication of employees, correcting a mistake or oversight, amid privacy concerns and criticism that the move was institutionalizing and legitimizing such platforms in formal communication.

The anomaly will be corrected and the government will remove social media and WhatsApp from wage communication draft notification, labour secretary Apurva Chandra said.

“We will amend that portion. We value the privacy concerns of employees. The drafts will be finalized soon and you will see that social media, including WhatsApp will not be there in the final standing orders,” Chandra said.