Covid-19 crisis: Pharma majors step up support to affected employees

Pharma firms have come forward to help employees and their dependents during the pandemic. With over 270,000 deaths due to Covid-19 in the country, the pharma players, who are also part of essential services, have stepped up effo­rts to ensure that families of employees, who succumbed to the disease, are able to have some financial support.

Apart from one-time payments, some of these measures include paying for children’s education, arranging hospital and ICU beds, or having round-the-clock helplines to assist employees and their families.

The country’s largest drug maker Sun Pharmaceuticals has announced that it will pay an amount equivalent to two years’ salary (minimum of Rs 25 lakh and maximum of Rs 1.2 crore). A company spokesperson said this benefit will be over and above the existing group term insurance. “The company will also pay the education fees of children of these employees up to their graduation in India,” the spokesperson added.

Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals has taken a slightly different approach – it is paying out Rs 25 lakh flat to families of employees who have succumbed to Covid. “Our human resource team immediately visits the employee’s family and hands over the cheque,” said Jayesh Desai, ex­e­cutive director of the Torrent Group. Desai said having a bla­nket financial payment amo­unt helps employees in the lower rungs of hierarchy more, for example, the firm’s drivers. He added out of the 22,000 employees overall, 21,000 would be drawing salaries below Rs 10 lakh per annum.

Torrent has also added Rs 5 lakh Covid cover for its employees over and above the group medical insurance policy. Tog­e­ther with the usual payouts, when one adds the Covid benefits, it easily works out to not less than Rs 1 crore for Torrent’s employees, Desai claimed. “It is important to ensure that the family sustains and is able to pay its bills. We also give preference to recruiting family me­m­bers of our deceased employees, but this is also based on merit and is a pre-Covid practice,” he added.

Mumbai-headquartered Lupin is paying out an amount equivalent to two times the annual gross salary to the beneficiary of the deceased emp­loyee. The company has linked this to grades — for general manager and above, Lupin will pay the annual gross salary in case of death of the employee. It is also bearing ‘isolation exp­enses’ for the employee and their family members up to Rs 25,000 (which is reimbursable through medical insurance). Any amount over and above it will be borne by Lupin. The firm is also trying to ensure that those who are sick get access to proper healthcare facilities – it has set up a dedicated task force to secure and provide oxy­gen and oxygen support hospital beds to all its employees.

Another Ahmedabad-based drug major Cadila Healthcare, which is at the forefront of developing a Covid vaccine, has a Zydus Wellbeing Fund, which extends financial support in case of an employee’s death. “We are in the process of widening the ambit of this (fund). We have been supporting medical expenses for the employees and their families hospitalised due to Covid. We have also set up a Covid care clinic for our employees and also offer free tele-consultation with doctors across India,” a company spokesperson said.

Firms like Lupin and Zydus have set up helplines to assist employees and their families round-the-clock with medical assistance, counseling and doctor consultation, among others.

“Since last year, we have set up a central committee and a helpline, which supports employees and their families round-the-clock. Free medicine kits are being provided with immunity boosters and vitamin supplements. A team of medical advisors have been guiding employees at all locations on their treatment, if infected with Covid,” the spokesperson added.