Across India, employers are focussing on ways to get their employees vaccinated. The most extraordinary method, however, was adopted by the Tribal Department in Chattisgarh. The Department in Gaurella-Pendra-Marwahi district, beyond Raipur, has threatened to withhold the salaries of its employees in June if they fail to get vaccinated. The Department has directed that employees will have to show their vaccination card as proof of vaccination at the Tribal Division of the dictrict collectorate at the earliest.
As a result of this unique directive, over 90 per cent of the officials have got themselves inoculated.
Meanwhile, Ola has started the vaccination drive for its employees in earnest. All staff members above 45 were vaccinated in April. The remaining are now being inoculated. The drive is already on in Bengaluru which houses most of the staff members, and will soon begin in other cities depending on the rate of vaccine supply. Half of the employees of Ola have been successfully vaccinated already.
In Telangana, the state government has allowed all banks and financial institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NABARD, to incoluate their employees as well as their family members who are above the age of 18, by collaborating with private hospitals. Drives at the workplace have also been allowed to be initiated.
The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a body formed by nine unions representing bank employees and officers, has been voicing the urgent need for inoculating bank staff who are as at risk as frontline staff.
The Centre’s Department of Financial Services has already advised all state governments to vaccinate banking staff on priority.
