Coronavirus impact: Staffing body seeks job security for 33-lakh temporary workers

Bengaluru: The Indian Staffing Federation has urged the labour and finance ministries to take immediate steps to protect the livelihood of 3.3 million temporary workers. The appeal comes at a time when various companies are looking at layoffs.

At least, four companies told ET that they were thinking of reducing their temporary staff by 40-60% this month to rein in costs amid uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic. These numbers are even higher in the insurance, retail and hospitality sectors which do not expect an uptick even after the ongoing nationwide lockdown is lifted.

To provide incentives to firms keeping temp workers on their rolls, ISF has asked the ministry to slash provident fund contributions for both employers and employees by half to 6%, not raise minimum wages for the next 12 months and rejig the GST slab for the employment services industry from 18% to 5%, among other suggestions.


“The…lockdown has made several industries, who are principal employers, unable to put these employees to productive work,” said Lohit Bhatia, president of ISF.