Covid Compensation. IDFC FIRST Bank compensates families of employees affected by Covid

IDFC FIRST Bank is offering compensation equivalent to four times of the CTC as well as continuation of salary for two years to the families of the employees who lost their lives due to the coronavirus infection.

Among others, the bank is also offering loan waivers of such employees so that their families do not feel pressured due to the economic burden.

"The bank's employees are usually young people. Their families will be taken by shock. So we put together a composite programme covering all angles. We are giving four times the annual CTC as compensation plus continuing the salary for two more years so that the family can get the time to economically recover," V Vaidyanathan, Managing Director and CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank, told PTI.

The bank is taking initiative to contact the families of those deceased and informing them about what the bank has to offer to them, he added.

"Among others, as part of this scheme we are waiving employee loans as families will have to bear the burden otherwise. If an employee has taken a personal loan, car loan, two-wheeler loan or education loan, etc, that is 100 per cent waived by the bank. Housing loan waiver is up to Rs 25 lakh (before June 30, 2021)," Vaidyanathan said.

Suppose, if an employee had taken Rs 30 lakh loan, IDFC FIRST will waive Rs 25 lakh and residual loan will become 5 lakh, he explained.

"The family can pay the reduced EMI from the salary credits we will make to them for 2 years. We are asking employees to insure their loans going forward (after June)," he said.

Vaidyanathan said around 20 employees of the bank have lost their lives to Covid.

"We are reaching out to the families of the deceased employees and telling them that you are entitled to this. We will give employment to the spouse if they are eligible on merit, if not then we will give them Rs 2 lakh for skilling them," he said.

The compensation is applicable retrospectively and will continue as long as the pandemic remains.

Among others under this 'Employee Covid Care Scheme 2021', the lender has made provision of scholarship of Rs 10,000 monthly to two children up to graduation, funeral expenses up to Rs 30,000, relocation assistance of Rs 50,000 as well as pro-rata bonus payout for the period served this year by the deceased employee.

Apart from this, Vaidyanathan said the bank employees have taken an initiative on their own to help the needy customers belonging to the low income group by generating a corpus from their salaries.

Under this employee funded Ghar Ghar Ration programme, the bank employees will supply ration kits to 50,000 low income customers whose livelihood has been impacted by the pandemic.

Employees are procuring ration kits comprising 10 kg rice/flour, 2 kg lentils, 1 kg sugar and salt, 1 kg cooking oil, 5 packets of spices, tea, biscuits and other essentials, he said, adding employees have contributed one day to one month's salary for this.

He said as many as 16,000 benefits have reached across Rajasthan, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh under this programme launched recently.

The lender has also identified 250 vulnerable families who have lost an earning member of their family to Covid-19 with a cash relief support of Rs 10,000 in a partnership with 'Give India'.

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