Reliance employees who earn less than ₹30,000 will be paid twice a month in the wake of Coronavirus

• Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries announced a number of measures to help the country during the Coronavirus pandemic.
• To help its employees manage financial stress, Reliance announced that those who earn less than ₹30,000 will be paid twice a month.
• Reliance also said that it will continue to pay contract and temporary workers, even if work has halted due to this crisis.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries today announced a slew of initiatives to combat the Coronavirus pandemic.

To help its employees manage financial stress, Reliance said that those who earn less than ₹30,000 will be paid twice a month. The company has taken the step to “protect their cashflow and mitigate any overwhelming financial burden”.

All of Reliance employees have been asked to work from home, except for those who are manning critical roles like maintaining the Jio network, as well as those in the petroleum and grocery outlets and other essential services.

However, Reliance’s chain of grocery stores – Reliance Fresh, will now work with extended hours from 7 am to 11 pm.

Reliance also said that it will continue to pay contract and temporary workers, even if work has halted due to this crisis.

A similar move was announced by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekharan.

"During this time of crisis, our group companies commit to ensuring full payments to the temporary workers and daily wage earners who are working in our offices and at our sites in India for the month of March and April, 2020, even if these workers are not able to work due to either quarantine measures, site closures, plant shutdowns or other reasons," Chandrasekharan said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the government announced that amounts spent by corporates to control Coronavirus will be considered a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.(CSR) initiatives.

A circular from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said that corporate spending for various activities related to Covid-19 including promotion of healthcare, preventive healthcare, sanitation, disaster management would qualify for treatment as CSR.

As per government rules, all listed companies should spend at least 2% of their profits on CSR.