Fighting the pandemic: How these states prevented jobs related stress

Apart from many other ills, the social fabric in the pandemic times was severely affected by jobs related stress, mass layoffs and salary cuts. Jobs has always been a major challenge for Industries and Governments to handle. States adopted among other measures adopted technology to manage the jobs related situation and found success. 

Preventing and correcting layoffs in Telangana
The mass layoffs in the IT industry during the pandemic left many employees stranded. The department of IT swung into action alongwith Department of Labour and IT industry associations like NASSCOM and Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA). In all, one hundred forty cases complaints of layoffs were reported. “We held consultations with the actual complainant followed by discussions with the team leader, HR manager of the company and also with the owners and in over one hundred and twenty cases, the employees were taken back by their employers,” says Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT, Industries and Commerce, Telangana. The rest of the cases had performance issues; genuine concerns with pandemic related stress.

So, what happened to the others who were qualified as being laid off for genuine reasons ? The Government of Telangana hired three companies and Telangana Academy for Skills and Knowledge (TASK).to reskill these employees at the Govt’s cost and then offer them jobs based on the skills repertoire. Moreover, the approach undertaken in this engagement is unique. The placement agencies will get their returns from the employer. They will not be paid either by the Govt or the candidate. “This is now being recognised nationally as a good practice for Governments to manage layoffs,” claims Ranjan.

Portal and DBT platform for migrants in Uttar Pradesh
The migrant crisis was one of the highlights of the lockdown. The Government of Uttar Pradesh took swift action as most of the migrants were natives. “Over 35 lakh migrants came back to the state and a portal was designed to compile information about them. The portal was not only used for providing Direct Benefit transfer (DBT) and food grains but also for providing jobs. The data was kept open for the industry and thus many companies hired these migrants based on the openings and skills,” informed Kumar.

In the initial few days after the data base was exposed to the industry, over five to six lakh jobs were offered through the portal. This data proved successful for the group housing projects in the NCR region. They had requirements for carpenters, plumbers, etc.

Abhishek Raval, Principal Correspondent, Express Computer also contributed to the story