No support from the government! The dormitories of foreign employees are transformed into quarantine centres as soon as positive asymptomatic cases are detected. They do not work for 14 days but no financial support is given to the factories, which deplores this fact. The employee’s basic salary remains untouched and no deductions are possible.
A heavy weight!
A quarantine is very expensive for the employer. The affected factories are not only helpless in the face of the crisis situation, but are also in a state of near-total shutdown of their factories, while continuing to compensate these expatriate workers and cover all the expenses required for a dormitory and without government support. “The foreign employees are certainly not to be blamed, but it is taking a toll on the factory,” says Wafique Roshan, a financial officer at Real Garments Ltd. in La Tour Koenig.
A near 14 days paralysis
With 900 foreign employees in its workforce of 1,200, the six dormitories at Pointes aux Sables, Coromandel and Beau Bassin are all quarantine centres, housing asymptomatic positives and those who have been in contact, the suspected ones. There is a special facility for those who are completely negative for Covid, but they do not count by many and certainly not enough to cover the tasks of their colleagues in quarantine.
“The factory is operating with less than a quarter of its workforce, so most of our operations are halted, but we have to provide for the daily needs of the affected employees, pay their basic salaries without deducting from their sick leaves or local leaves and dormitory expenses such as rent and utilities, and all of this without any money coming in for the company. As production is delayed, delivery follows and we incur further considerable costs due to the disruption and delay caused by the health crisis. The government says it can’t get into this. There is nothing we can do except to comply with the government’s rules,” says our interlocutor.
The basic salary of a foreign employee is on average Rs 10,200 and dormitory fees are on a case-by-case basis. The shortfall is considerable; there is no recovery plan in place.
