Shapoorji Pallonji Group says taking care of its 1.1 lakh workers at their locations

Mumbai, Mar 30 () Amidst the mounting human crisis arising from the fleeing migrant workers, who form a vast majority of the nation's labour force, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which employs as much as 70,000 migrant workers, has announced that it will take care of all their needs at their respective workplaces.

The 155-year-old Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which owns over 18 per cent in Tata Sons, employs a little over 1,10,000 employees across its sites.

Of these 45,000 are manning the 430 sites in the country, and 25,000 are at 130 sites abroad. These direct workers are supported by 40,000 subcontracted workers, taking the total worker strength to 1,10,000.

"The difficult and trying situation the humanity faces today is unprecedented, on account of the global spread of the Covid19 pandemic. This calls for governments, institutions, corporates and citizens to take several measures, immediate/short-term/long-term, to contain its spread and provide relief to those suffering from it, particularly the weaker sections of society," the company chairman Shapoor P Mistry said in an internal letter.

According to a 2017 report of the Working Group on Migration carried out by the Union housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry, top 17 districts in the country see 25 per cent of its men migrating out for work.

And according to the FY2018-19 economic survey, as much as 93 per cent of our workforce is informal-meaning no secured salaries and other benefits and of these 20 per cent are migrant labourers whose earnings amounted to 6 per cent of GDP and their remittances amounted to 2 per cent of GDP.

Against this, the government's entire financial package for the poor and to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic is a paltry 1 per cent of the GDP.

Mistry says the company operates worker camps at most of its project sites with good living conditions, providing lodging, boarding, transport, medical/ hygiene facilities, recreation, daily briefings and communication, regular sanitization, hospital tie-ups etc.

"We have now made provisions to ensure that for the entire April, all personnel in our camps get adequate food and water, visits by trained medical staff and medicines as required in major camps, and isolation facilities for special medical care are created wherever needed," Mistry said in the letter to the management and the staff.

Explaining the move as his company's "investment in our committed workforce and also to ensure that the migrant labourers stay put at their workplaces and do not need to return to their homes."

The construction sector directly employs more than 4.5 crore, contributing over 8.5 per cent of GDP, and generates nearly 4 times more employment through vendors, subcontractors.

The Covid-19 pandemic poses a very serious and immediate threat to undermine this entire industry, which would very adversely impact the nation's progress, he warned.

Mistry also called upon the government to strengthen the social safety net to support the large body of construction workers and also to announce a comprehensive financial assistance package for the construction sector at the earliest. BEN MRMR