IT Companies Announce Financial Assistance for Families of Departed Employees

IT companies are now taking employee well-being into consideration like never before. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several citizens have lost their loved ones and family members, and the IT companies they work in have taken it upon themselves to ensure they do everything in their capacity to help their employees. Some of the initiatives that are being undertaken by IT companies range from financial to medical intervention. Here are initiatives that have been announced by some of the IT companies for their employees.

Siemens announces lumpsum financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh in addition to one year’s salary to support families of employees who lost their lives to the pandemic

To support families of employees, who have lost their lives to COVID-19, Siemens announced lumpsum financial assistance of Rs 25 lakh in addition to one year’s salary of the employee. Furthermore, support towards school fees and continued medical insurance for immediate family members will be given. Siemens will grant supplemental leave for colleagues recovering from COVID-19 and additional 10 days of Wellness Leave for every employee. The above measures are in addition to Siemens’ commitment to facilitating vaccinations for all employees and their families.

Tata Technologies Announces Immediate pay-out of variable pay to families of departed colleagues

Some of the initiatives announced by Tata Technologies are as follows:

• Financial Assistance over and above Group Term-Life Policy: Currently, the group term life insurance cover enables a total amount of two years annual fixed salary to be paid out to the families of departed colleagues. As an immediate step for the rest of the fiscal year (till 31 March 2022), we will be topping up the sum insured with one more year of total annual fixed salary as an employer contribution to ease the burden on affected families. Families of departed colleagues will hence receive a total of three years annual fixed salary. This will also cover the families of recently departed colleagues.
• Immediate pay-out of variable pay to families of departed colleagues: Families of affected colleagues will receive an immediate pro-rata payment of 100% of their eligible Variable Pay.
• Extended medical cover for core family: As an organization, we are extending and sponsoring the medical cover for families of affected colleagues for the next 10 years or till their children reach the age of 18, whichever comes later. Premium towards the same would be paid by the Company
• Employee Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI): In addition to the above, the families of these colleagues will also receive payments under the Employee Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme which applies to all employees who contribute to PF. This scheme provides a total lump sum payment of INR 702,000 to the beneficiary.
• COVID Relief Fund where employees can contribute to support the employees and families impacted by COVID-19.

Cyware’s COVID-related employee initiatives

• COVID care fund of Rs 1 Crore earmarked for covid-related healthcare expenses of all employees and their dependents.
• Insurance Coverage at Cyware covers COVID-related healthcare expenses.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program launched in partnership with 1to1 help making available professional counselling to employees for COVID-related stress, mental health, and other personal issues.
• Rs 10,000 worth benefits to employees to purchase any stuff they might need to support their work from home activities.
• Internal Covid 19 Channel on Slack for sharing COVID-related information or news updates.

VMware doubles its Wellbeing Allowance for the employees in India

VMware recently announced that it will be doubling the Wellbeing Allowance for the employees in India and has further simplified the process for availing the benefits, including making weekly reimbursements possible. Under VMware’s unique 2021 Wellbeing Allowance, all employees across its offices in India will be eligible for a wellbeing allowance of Rs 59,130 to equip employees to live a more healthy and balanced life. This increase in benefit comes at a time when the country is battling a surge of cases with the second wave of Covid 19. Earlier this year, VMware had announced that under VMware’s unique wellbeing program, all employees across offices in India will be eligible for a wellbeing allowance of Rs 29,565, which has since been further enhanced to provide better and timely relief to all its workforce in India.

HCL Technologies  Introduces Holistic Family Assistance Program to Support Dependents of Employees who Lost their Lives to COVID

• Compassionate Assistance Allowance: this is a lump sum amount that is released to the bereaved family quickly to help them manage immediate expenses.
• Child Education Support - introduced retrospectively (effective from April 1, 2020) to support deceased employees’ school-going children continue their formal education without gap.
• Medical Insurance Coverage: HCL will pay the medical insurance premium for the dependents of the deceased employee for two more policy terms to help them manage any unforeseen medical expenses.
• Gratuity: this will be paid to employees’ families, irrespective of defined minimum five-year continuous service eligibility criteria.
• Employment Opportunity: To ensure the deceased employees’ family is cared for and have a financially secure future, HCL has decided to offer employment opportunities to the unemployed spouse or dependent children above the age of 18 years, basis their qualifications, open positions and trainability.