COVID-19 crisis: StanC announces relief measures for 25k employees in India

Mumbai, May 18: Foreign lender Standard Chartered Bank on Tuesday announced a slew of COVID-19 relief measures to help its over 25,000 employees in the country amid the second wave of coronavirus infections in the country.

The facilities, which also cover personnel handling global back office work, include reimbursements of up to Rs 2.5 lakh if an employee were to be admitted in an intensive care unit, interest free salary advance of up to six months' gross pay to cover medical expenses, and also paying four-times annual salary to the next of kin of a deceased employee, a statement said.

A slew of companies, especially the multinational ones, have introduced similar facilities for employees after the emergence of the second wave of coronavirus infections in India.

"...the second wave of the pandemic has seen an increase in the number of cases. We are doing everything possible to support our colleagues in these difficult times and we hope that our new initiatives, including timely financial support, will support our colleagues through what is a really challenging period,'' the bank's cluster chief executive for India and South Asia, Zarin Daruwala, said.

Its global head for Global Business Services (GBS), Mathhew Norris, said these have been difficult and disrupting times globally, but more particularly in India and the bank has undertaken these measures after identifying particular needs that have come up.