Tata Group to fully compensate temporary staff amid COVID-19 outbreak: N Chandrasekaran

Tata Group companies will enure full payment to temporary workers and daily wage earners for March and April even if they are unable to come to work due to quarantine measures or site closures amid the coronavirus outbreak, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Friday.

Terming COVID-19 outbreak a major global crisis, Chandrasekaran said the nation needs collective efforts in these tough and uncertain times.

"At the Tata Group, we have asked all of our companies to exercise extreme caution. The health and safety of our employees, their families and our suppliers, vendors and our larger ecosystem is of paramount importance," he said.

Tata Group companies have largely enabled a work from home environment, he added.

"We have asked our companies in India to rapidly and extensively adopt work from home to ensure that employees travel only in the most essential cases, excluding situations in which they are involved in the delivery of products and services for the larger public good," Chandrasekaran said.

He added that the current situation is likely to have a large and deep financial impact on the weaker socio-economic segments of the society.

"During this time of crisis, our group companies commit to ensuring full payments to the temporary workers and daily wage earners who are working in our offices and at our sites in India for the month of March and April, 2020, even if these workers are not able to work due to either quarantine measures, site closures, plant shutdowns or other reasons," Chandrasekaran noted.

In case of micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector, Tata Group companies follow a policy of making timely payments of legitimate dues, he said.

"Under the current situation, we will monitor this closely to ensure that such dues are paid on an immediate basis in order to provide liquidity," Chandrasekaran said.