Berger Paints will honor all new recruitments and won't be firing even during lockdown

New Delhi, Apr 21 () Berger Paints on Tuesday said it is honouring all hiring commitments given to lateral candidates and campus recruits prior to the imposition of nationwide lockdown to fight COVID-19 pandemic. The paints major also said it has decided against any involuntary furloughs or organizational restructuring that may lead to downsizing of headcount and consequent loss of livelihood during this time of widespread uncertainty due to coronavirus pandemic.

"Berger has decided that all offers rolled out to campus recruits across India shall be honoured and no offer shall be revoked," the company said in a statement.

In light of the uncertainty in the industry on account of the lockdown, campus recruits are being engaged with continuously to assure them of the sanctity of their job offer, it added.

Similarly, the company said, "All hiring commitments given to lateral candidates prior to the nationwide lockdown being announced are being honoured and they are being paid salaries with effect from their pre-committed date of joining, even if the same falls within the lockdown window thereby preventing them from actually joining the organization."

It further said salaries of all permanent or fixed-term employees have been disbursed in full and on time.

"The company has also engaged with its service providers to ensure that salaries of their associates who are deployed in its facilities are also disbursed in a timely manner so that employees do not face any financial hardships on account of the current situation," it added.

Commenting on the company's commitment, Berger Paints Managing Director and CEO Abhijit Roy said, "We are like one big but closely knit family and would fight this battle together. These are challenging times and might require small sacrifices from the entire family to sail through the crisis."

He further said, "However, there won't be any retrenchments or involuntary furloughs. We are in this together and would emerge stronger as we come out of the COVID-19 crisis."

The company said all new joinees are being "on boarded remotely from the comfort of their homes using conferencing tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams".

Last week (13th April) Berger Paints India Ltd said it has come forward to help its 20,000 odd painting contractors across the country to tide over the coronavirus crisis through financial assistance as the ongoing nationwide lockdown to contain the COVID-19 outbreak is set tobe extended by two more weeks till April-end. The money will help contractors' families to get daily essentials and cater to any emergency at a time when their incomes have taken a hit as all painting activities came to "ascreeching halt with the lockdown in place", the company saidin a statement.

The paint maker is providing an advance to them andthe support varies per contractor, it said.

The average financial assistance per contractor isaround Rs 5,500, a company official said.

Berger has already started the process of transferring money directly into the bank accounts of the contractors who have been associated with the company, the official said.

More than 5,000 contractors have already received the financial support last week under the first phase of the programme.

"The painting contractors have always been an integral part of the larger Berger family and we feel humbled that weare in a position to support them in this hour of need," thecompany's MD and CEO Abhijit Roy said.

He also hoped that the government will take measuresto restart economic activity through ease of restrictions inareas unaffected by the coronavirus pandemic.