How has COVID-19 affected white-collar workers
It may come as a surprise to many of us but the origin of COVID-19, which many seem to believe is an infected bat ingested by a human, is still a subject of aggressive research by scientists at several research centres [1]. Since its origin in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, millions have tested positive for the virus and it has claimed over 200,000 lives all over the world.
Much like other countries, India is also at a standstill and is currently observing a nationwide “lockdown”. Last time the country ceased to function like this was when the second national emergency was declared in June 1975 and Article 352 of The Constitution of India was imposed. The country remained in the state of emergency for close to three years. The present situation is similar, only there is no internal disturbance, a threat to the security of the state or an armed rebellion breaking out (turns out the country has seen worse days).
The outbreak of COVID-19 has evidently affected people all over the country. The government has launched several schemes over the last few weeks to support the citizens during this difficult time. For instance, on March 26, 2020, the Finance Minister announced funding of INR 1.70 lakh Cr. under the umbrella of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana [2]. This scheme essentially aids the poor section of the country. This funding covers health insurance and food security among other things.
For the white-collar class of the country, the government released an order dated March 29, 2020, mandating employers to keep paying salaries to their employees despite the lockdown [3]. Before this, the state governments and the Joint Secretary of Ministry of Labour and Employment [4] rolled out advisories for the companies to not lay off their employees and keep paying them in these difficult times. Even after these efforts, several employees kept losing their jobs.
Speaking from the perspective of an employer, inevitably, owing to the lockdown, businesses have been suffering and looking for means to cut down their expenses. Now, as has been discussed previously in Termination of Employees amid COVID-19 it was established that an employer can terminate their employees even during this pandemic provided they abide by the law. It was discussed that the employees who are governed by their employment contract, there predominantly exists a condition where they have to serve a notice period, before they can be relieved of their services. So even if the employers did intend to lay off their employees, they will potentially have to allow them to serve notice period or compensate them instead.
Furthermore, amidst all of this, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt. Ltd. [5] in their recent survey evaluated that as of last week of March 2020, the unemployment rate was at 23.8 per cent, which was at 6.7 per cent the week before that.
How is this happening? Companies have found a remedy to this predicament. They need to curb their losses but they also cannot legally terminate their employees with immediate effect. So, they are essentially asking their employees to voluntarily resign from their jobs. This is nothing companies have not done before, but in the present situation, voluntary resignations are being enforced in bulk. For instance, an IT company based out of Gurgaon, indirectly laid off an entire department by making the employees resign at their will.
One of the ex-employees of the company in question, recounted the incident that transpired. In a meeting with the company’s Director he was informed that the company was planning to shut down his entire department as, because of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdown, they were not looking to engage new clients and focus only on existing accounts. The employee as well as his whole department was requested to resign at will or they would be terminated by the company immediately.
In such a situation, what would an employee ideally do? Should he choose to not resign voluntarily and be terminated by the company without having followed the law, he would have a legal remedy for wrongful termination of employment against the company. But, on realizing that filing a lawsuit would be an extensive and exhausting journey, especially when the courts were also shut due to the lockdown, voluntary resignation looked uncomplicated. So, the employee and his entire department including his Manager, voluntarily resigned.
In another instance, British Airways (BA) recruited several employees in different departments before the lockdown was imposed. One such recruit, narrated the incident that followed her.
The recruit resigned from the company she was working with in March and was serving her notice period. She was supposed to join BA on April 20, 2020. A few days before her joining, BA informed her that her joining had been postponed. Then a few days later, BA informed her that her joining had been “deferred indefinitely”. In layman terms, her future at BA was hazy which implied that she was now unemployed like several others and currently relaxing in the confines of her home.
These were the unpleasant incidents that have unfortunately emerged. But some companies are functioning at full capacity without missing a day. One such company is American International Group (AIG). It is an MNC operating in the field of finance and insurance since the early 2000s in India. Having had an opportunity to speak with one of the employees of the company, she described her experience during this lockdown as extremely comfortable.
AIG implemented work from home for its employees first on a trial basis in the second week of March 2020. On realizing that work was not being hampered, they announced work from home for all the employee until the end of March 2020. Since then, the company has extended the work from home time and again conforming with the lockdown.
The employee stated that her company was not taking pay cuts from the salaries and was giving promotions to those who are eligible and also hiring for several positions. Currently, AIG intends to keep up with the work from home culture until the COVID-19 situation is under control and is functioning at full throttle.
This is a peek into what is currently happening in the country. Regrettably, everyone is suffering right now in one way or another. On a brighter note, the government and the people are fighting this evil together. Even though they are suffering, people are following the lockdown norms. They are keeping safe and staying at home.
References:
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/how-did-the-coronavirus-start-where-did-it-come-from-how-did-it-spread-humans-was-it-really-bats-pangolins-wuhan-animal-market
[2] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1608345
[3] https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_MHAOrderrestrictingmovement_29032020.pdf
[4] https://labour.gov.in/sites/default/files/Central_Government_Update.pdf
[5] https://www.cmie.com/kommon/bin/sr.php?kall=warticle&dt=2020-04-07%2008:26:04&msec=770
