COVID-19 Second Wave Forced Developers Into Giving Time Off To Their Employees To Tackle The Pandemic

Besides stepping forward to set up COVID war rooms and helping out with augmenting medical infrastructure to cope with the second wave, real estate developers are also granting their employees time to beat the pandemic blues.

Mumbai-based K Raheja Corp has set up a centralised 24×7 Covid War Room backed by a team of employees committed to assisting colleagues and in some cases even non-employees with emergency services. It is also encouraging healthy employees to use the company’s existent policy of ‘Time Off for Volunteering’, wherein employees can pursue any community service of their choice during regular workdays, six days in a year.

Real estate company Godrej Properties had given its 2,000 permanent staff and 600 contract employees a complete break from work for three days starting May 5 to spend time with families during the second wave.

“Ever since our employees started working remotely, we have rolled out mindful initiatives to ensure their general and mental well-being. The work from home burnout is real and the last thirteen months of Covid and the second wave have taken a toll on people; emotionally and mentally.

“As a company, it is our responsibility to be with our employees and we understand that in tough times like these, everyone deserves a break. We introduced ‘Taking a Pause to Heal’ initiative, where these three days starting May 5 plus the weekend will be a complete break from everything work-related,” said Mohit Malhotra, MD and CEO of Godrej Properties.

A group of developers in Uttar Pradesh have approached the UP government for priority COVID-19 vaccination for employees of real estate projects.

In a letter addressed to Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, chief secretary, UP government, Naredco UP has “urged the government to consider priority vaccination for COVID-19 to all employees of real estate projects (both directly employed and employed through contractors) including supervisory, engineering, technical and administration staff either at designated government vaccination centres or at the construction sites itself, as may be convenient to the concerned authorities. In case any arrangements have to be made by the developers, the same can be got done,” it said.

Gurugram-based M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of M3M Group, has teamed up with Indian Air Force to provide food and medical facilities, including oxygen, for patients in Gurugram. A mobile medical unit is also available for shifting any patient from the Covid-care centre to the hospital.

“The facility center is functional now with 150 beds at our luxurious apartments at our project OKR in sector 67 in Gurugram. We thank the Indian Air Force for joining us with their expertise and necessary support for this initiative,” said Payal Kanodia, Trustee, M3M Foundation.

This Covid Care centre, which will be run and managed by the Indian Air Force, is part of the M3M foundation’s PAN India initiative Kartavya.

(Source: Moneycontrol)