Even large companies and top industry associations are defaulting in making payments to their staff, suppliers and contractors since the outbreak of Covid-19. The fear of the spreading virus, lockdowns, social and physical distancing practices and non-availability of public transport have led to shutdown of offices, establishments and institutions, including schools, colleges and coaching classes. Classes, tuitions and examinations have gone online. Few privately run educational institutions are known to be paying salaries regularly to teachers working from home although these establishments are collecting full fees, including non-operating school bus service, from students or their guardians.

Pay-cut for white-collar employees seems to have become the new norm in most enterprises, including business associations, in cities such as the National Capital Region of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur. This is not entirely unexpected since income of most organisations and enterprises are badly down in several cases. Business and industry association members are delaying fee payments. On-ground marketing and sales promotion activities, conferencing, travel and hoteliering, entertainment business, including sports and cinema, are practically non-operational since April.

The economy is down by over 20 percent in the last five months. The job market is badly impacted. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, around 1.89 crore salaried persons were let go since April 2020. Fifty lakhs of them lost their jobs in July alone. The salaried segment is witnessing a big loss of jobs. The report also raised concerns over the country’s economic recovery since metrics like GDP and inflation are expected to remain bleak. Legal experts say that employees may refuse to WFH and employer may treat it as ‘leave without pay.’ However, under the current unemployment situation in the country, few employees are prepared to stay without work even if WFH payout is irregular. S. Kannan, a CITU leader, says that state governments have to pitch in to clarify on the issue of payment of wages.

WFH teachers from several private institutions across the country — some of them boasting big brands and charging very high fees from students — have been taking online classes and examinations as also offering the service of counselling under government instruction. However, not many are known to be getting their salaries regularly from school management. “There are job offers from competing institutions, which are ready to pay even higher compensations to deserving candidates. But, it would be risky to move out to another institution at this stage since we are certain to lose the arrears of payment due from the current employer and there is no guarantee that new employers will keep their salary commitments until the situation normalises,” says a senior teacher of a hi profile Bengaluru school.

The experience is the same for WFH employees in other professions, including those in audit firms, law firms, real-estate enterprises, sales and marketing and in corporate outfits. New jobs are there for the competent ones. But, the time is hardly right for a job change. In fact, white-collar WFH employees are facing a torrid time. Even large organisations are indulging in pay-cuts for WFH employees. Despite the latest issue of ‘Unlock 4.0’ guidelines, no one is sure if and when the old work practice will return. A Mumbai-based diversified industrial conglomerate has already announced that all its sales staff can now WFH permanently. The public announcement by its chairman suggests that the new WFH norm has come to stay in India as in several big economies in the world.

More than the new norm, employees are concerned about getting their pay checks and reimbursement of additional WFH establishment cost in time from their employers. In several big economies, enterprises have long been following the WFH practice, well before the pandemic paralysed the normal working environment. And, there is no complaint about employers not strictly respecting job contracts. Most of these economies have low unemployment rate. Many countries offer regular and routine unemployment doles. Unfortunately, India is different. The practice of delaying or cutting salaries for WFH employees has made the norm untrustworthy to many.

Incidentally, the latest Bloomberg estimate of the potential white-collar job losers in the US is quite alarming. A second wave of job losses appears likely even as states start reopening their economies after a long shutdown. In fact, India may also experience a similar situation as the country went in for ‘Unlock 4.0’ from this month amidst continuing outbreak of fresh Covid 19 cases. It may be time that the government steps in to fix a WFH norm that is beneficial to both employees and employers. The practice of WFH should not provide a special advantage to unethical employers to exploit their employees. Incidentally, WFH has raised expectations of being available 24/7. It has blurred the lines between work and home. (IPA Service)