Don’t lay off, cut salary instead: Karnataka govt to IT firms in Bengaluru

Karnataka on Friday asked Information Technology and allied companies to cut salaries instead of laying-off employees during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan held a video conference with industry leaders, including Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, to take stock of readiness for IT/BT companies to resume operations after April 20.

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“It was discussed that there should not be employee layoffs. Instead, salary cuts can be taken up so that the functioning of a company itself is not affected, given that there have not been many new business orders," Narayan, who is the IT/BT minister, told reporters after the video conferencing.

Bengaluru is home to lakhs of employees working in the software and technology services sector, with the city having almost a third of all global capacity centres (GCC) in India.

From April 20, IT/BT companies can start operations with 50 per cent strength, Narayan said. “Some concerns were expressed with regard to passes for their employees and vehicles. We told them that probably after April 20 there won’t be any pass system in existence,” Narayan said. “Although 50% workforce will be permitted, it’ll take a couple of weeks for the companies to mobilise this. The percentage will increase gradually and things will head towards normalcy,” he said.

The government will facilitate companies to hire BMTC buses on contract to ferry employees to work.

According to Narayan, protocols will be worked out for containment if COVID-19 positive cases are reported at workplaces. “So far, we’ve been planning for residential areas. If any positive cases are reported in office spaces, should we shut down or should we just screen employees, sanitise the place and continue working? Once relaxations are given, it’ll become a usual phenomenon where cases will continue to be reported here and there. We discussed how such a scenario should be handled,” Narayan said.