HR policies to type of ACs at work, government guidelines signal the way forward to firms

Shubhra Pant | TNN | Apr 23, 2020, 07:57 IST

Gurgaon: Poor hygiene practices and not following social distancing norms could affect your annual appraisal, if you happen to work in Gurgaon or the Manesar industrial area.
Indicating how workplaces will change as the country copes with the coronavirus pandemic, the Haryana government issued a set of guidelines that industries in Delhi’s vicinity are expected to follow, in addition to the protocols issued by the Centre. It has clarified that these are in the nature of advisories but also said it expects companies to stick to them.
Among those are linking appraisals to efforts to keep the workplace safe from Covid, doing away with smoking areas altogether and making health insurance cover mandatory. The guidelines also make installation of the Arogya Setu app mandatory for all workers in companies that apply to resume operations.
Additional chief secretary and GMDA chief VS Kundu said, “These are advisory guidelines and will help the industries to resume operations. While they are not mandatory, we believe that the industries not adhering to these might be in violation of the norms issued by the Union home ministry.” The advisory has been issued after consultation with industry bodies such as CII and Nasscom.
The extensive document listing the advisories, which also mentions the advisable chemical composition of disinfectants sanitising premises, covers multiple areas in detail, including manufacturing shifts, life beyond work and reconfiguration of HR policies. It states that mandatory installation of the Arogya Setu app by all the employees on their mobile phones will ensure that the government can trace their contacts in case they turn Covid-19 positive.
In terms of HR policies, besides mandatory health cover for all employees, the advisory mentions that employees’ non-adherence to social distancing and hygiene practices will reflect poorly on their annual appraisals, and repeated indiscipline, substantiated by evidence from other employees, must result in their summary removal from the job, in spite of their capability and performance.
Employees, it adds, must check their temperature at home, too, and should not turn up for work in case of fever or any other symptoms of flu. “The organisation must ask employees not to self-medicate, even with OTC drugs such as paracetamol,” said a labour department official.
The guidelines say smoking breaks in organisations are social-distancing disruptors and employees must be encouraged to get prescription nicotine patches or gums.
The advisory further suggests that window/split ACs with HEPA-based air purifiers and exhaust fans are better than centralised ACs to manage Covid-19 risk. “If an organisation can manage this, it will be a worthwhile investment. For work requiring collaboration that would interfere with social distancing, redesign the production flow, even if it adds to production time substantially,” says the advisory, which was issued by the Gurgaon administration.
“Since Gurgaon has a unique industrial and workforce mix, owning to its adjacency to Delhi and various NCR cities, all organisations should always adopt more stringent measures,” said additional labour commissioner (NCR areas of Haryana) Munish Sharma.
Sunjay Kapur, chairman of CII Haryana State Council, told TOI, “These guidelines are based on the inputs from industry and experts. We are hopeful that these guidelines will help the government and industry in calibrated opening up of the businesses in India as well as Haryana and also smoothen the approval process,”
But some industrialists say the guidelines have magnified their troubles. “The guidelines that have been issued are way too cumbersome. This is the third time they have been revised. Most industries are choosing not to apply for permissions due to the difficulty in the process,” said Deepak Maini, a city-based industry owner and member of Industrial Development Association.