Pay Cuts Are Okay, But Not An Act Of Unkindness Amid Pandemic

It was the March of 2020, when India had just started witnessing the menace of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister of India announced the voluntary lock downs. Later on, the countrywide lockdown had been imposed by the governments across the world to stop or slow-down the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Employers, Employees, Companies, Industries, Economies had got a huge setback due to lockdowns and suspension of their daily business operations.

Employers and Employees

People have started migrating towards their native places amid confusion and uncertainty about the future. Companies of most impacted industries such as tourism and hospitality too have started delaying the dates of joining of their recent hires. Some employers have started firing or terminating the contracts of their employees, which is still going on not only in India, but also across the world. And this is happening at a time when pandemic is still not over. Large number of resumes of unemployed circulating on LinkedIn tell the same story of misery and despair.

Donations and Kindness

The media articles started pouring in about the misery of the migrating labors and workforce in India. Seeing all this the national and state governments have started some relief work for them. Governments appealed to the general public and large companies to hold on the employee firings and if possible for donations to help the ailing people and economy. Many companies, NGOs and individuals have donated in millions as an act of kindness. They have started individual feeding stalls for the migrants passing by their areas.

Other Side of The Picture

National governments across the world have announced the huge packages for the most impacted companies, industries, and economy. However, there were other industries, sectors, companies too, those were flourishing at the times of social distancing and untouched economy. Knowingly or unknowingly, though companies, NGOs, individuals were donating the large sums to help the COVID-19 affected people, but at the same time, few of them were firing their employees and workforce citing the reasons of COVID-19.

What They Could Have Done

Although, media and governments have actively highlighted the misery of labors and daily wage workers, a large section of formal sector employees, who were furloughed by their employers went unnoticed. The formal sector employees too, who lost their jobs, remain hesitant telling their misery open amid COVID-19, because this would have further hit their morals in the anxiety and uncertainty hurled future.

Hence, instead of firing or terminating the contracts employers could have taken the following measures:

1. Pay cuts instead of being fired would have certainly helped formal sector employees by not completely shattering the morals and financial conditions of them
2. An empathy driven organization would have helped their vulnerable employees to cope with the uncertain future
3. Human resource department should have been employed to counsel the leaving employees
4. A proper communication should have helped employees leave empathetically for the organization
5. Companies donating large sums should also have given a kind treatment to their existing employees
6. Finally, the act of unkindness such as firing, when kindness is expected at its max should have been avoided till the last end possible

Published By Brijesh Kumar Awasthi

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.