Human Resource Community

The portal aims at keeping a record of all unorganized workers in its database toregister them for social-security benefits. India is a country where poverty runs rampant. The pandemic was a recent eye-opener to recognize thevoice of the people working in the unorganized sector in the country. The migrant crisis compelled usto think of the state of the unorganized workers.According to Financial Express, around 80% of our country’s population is employed in the informalsector. Of the 80% of people working in the unorganized sector, 40% work in agriculture. To keep a track of the unorganized workers in India, the government launched the e-Shram portal onAugust 26, 2021. Around 38 crore Indian unorganized workers will be registered in the portal includingthose working as labourers, street vendors, migrant workers, and domestic workers.A toll-free number- ‘14434’ was also launched by the government to address the issues related tounorganized workers or their queries. The portal will register all unorganized workers to provide themsocial-security benefits as per government guidelines.Workers can register themselves using their Aadhar and bank account numbers to register themselveson the portal. Once the registration process is complete, they will receive a unique e-Shram card witha 12-digit number. This card will help them avail various government policies and benefits.The details of all unorganized workers will be shared by all departments of respective states in thecountry.

In the surge of the upcoming hybrid workplace, employees’ benefits are again put behind filters.  A lot of company’s current benefits might not be as beneficial as it was before the pandemic. With this change, many employees are putting a lot of expectations from benefits proposition. As stated by Lauren Mason, a principal at Mercer, amanagement consulting firm. “Employees values have shifted quite significantly because of the stressors of pandemic and around child care and other concerns, as well just re-evaluating life circumstances”. This way a lot of new factors will get into consideration while calculating employees’ benefits. A lot of new factors are needed to be taken into consideration. As after facing off the pandemic and surviving it through various means. What we look at around us is a hybrid workforce altogether. Source: Wallstreetjournal

Now employers will be able to claim their tax credit based on the wages of employees, who are taking off to assist their family and household members, or even to people who look to the employees for caregiving help, to get vaccinated for COVID-19.This announcement was made by the treasury department and IRS for eligible employees to take paid leave tax credits under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). So that leaves can be provided to each employee getting the vaccineand also for the time required to recover from that vaccine, through September 30, 2021. Under this, the eligible employers generally will have less than 500 employees. The employers who were voluntarily giving sick leave or family leave will be able to claim tax credits equal to the wages paid for providing paid time off. Along with that, the employers are also allowed to claim tax credits for other wage-relatedexpenses, such as health plan expenses. This credit facility was created under the Families first Coronavirus Response Actand amended and extended by COVID-19 related tax relief act of 2020, which was then further extended underARPA till September 30.  Source: shrm.org

Employees and pensioners of Bihar government will now receive 28 per cent dearness allowance (DA) instead of 17 per cent. This hike will come into effect from July 1. The announcement about the increment in DA was made by chief minister Nitish Kumar on the occasion of Independence Day. Another announcement that brought much cheer to the women of the State is that the Bihar government’s incentive programme for examinees belonging to other backward classes (OBC) and economically backward classes (EBC), for the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams, will now be offered to all girls, regardless of the section of the society they come from. The scheme provides candidates who clear the preliminary exams of BPSC Rs 50,000 each and those who clear the UPSC prelims Rs one lakh each. Additionally, the income limit for students to avail the post-matric scholarship has also been increased from Rs 2.5 lakh per family per year, to Rs 3 lakhs per family per year. This benefit is extended to students from scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST), other backward classes (OBC) and economically backward classes (EBC). This year, in April, the Government of Bihar had announced a month’s salary as bonus for all its frontline healthcare workers. This was granted to them in appreciation of their efforts in helping fight the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: HR Katha

Rob Enslin, president- cloud sales, Google has announced the beginning of the Autism Career Programme which aims to develop a system that provides a fair selection process for candidates with autism who wish to apply for a job position.  To ease the process they will work with experts from the Stanford Neurodiversity Project which is a part of Stanford School of Medicine to make this project worthy. People with autism applying for jobs often have to go through certain difficulties in the selection process for example having face to face interviews and needing more time during them but Google Cloud has provided them with an option to extend the duration of face to face interviews or to give them via Google docs to make the process easier. 500 Managers working in Google cloud who will conduct these processes will be helped by Stanford in handling people with autism and will help in facilitating people’s interaction with their employees and new managers. Autism is still sometimes considered a myth and autistic people often become victims of bullying and many meaningless stereotypes. This is a very healthy and equitable process to provide equal and fair treatment and represented these communities.

Hiring activities showed record-breaking growth in July. A sequential increase of 11 percent for overall hiring was seen in July. This shows a strong recovery in economic growth and business after the covid-19 impact. As per the report by Naukri.com, there were a total of 2,625 job postings, as the hiring trend grew to 11 percent in July, in comparison to 2,359 postings in June. Which is the highest ever increase seen in the job hiring.  The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly index that calculates and records hiring activities, which is done based on per month job listings on the Naukri.com website. According to its report, businesses have continued to do well. Sectors of digitization, the IT software or software services sector have noticed its growth momentum with an 18 percent increase in July compared to June. Positive growth is seen in almost all the sectors. This has brought a wave of hope for job seekers, as per the report. Source: economictimes.com

The union home secretary A K Bhalla stated that an electronic human resource management system (e-HRMS) will be an effective tool in the future. After releasing the progress report about the system, Bhalla mentioned that the application of Artificial Intelligence tools will be an effective support in the policy makings and it will also help in handling matters in respect of personnel. Bhalla also insisted in his statement, that this system needs to be available and in use in other ministries as well. So that there will be better coordination in the administration system. The e-HRMS was launched by the Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh on December 25, 2017. As per the statement issued, the e-HRMS consist of 25 applications of five modules. Now applying the e-HRMS in ministries for better functioning is the agenda for government. Additional Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Rashmi Chowdhary said, with the help of e-HRMS governmentemployees can access their service-related information digitally. It has also digitalized the Human Resource process in the Government of India which led to several benefits and increased the employee’s efficiency. Source: economicstimes.com

Just after an incident in Rajasthan which made headlines when an ASHA worker was seen rowing a boat in difficult conditions to reach villagers awaiting vaccination, in Telangana, ASHA workers are raising their voices against low pay. The accredited social health activist workers are seeking an increment from the state government. They are demanding fixed salaries and want to be paid Rs 10,000 a month instead of Rs 7,000 considering that they are overburdened with work. The workers’ unions have approached senior health officials to plead their case. The workers want to earn fixed salaries instead of the honorarium that they are paid. They also want this honorarium to be hiked as per the Pay Commission. The workers point out that their demand for increments have not been met by the state government, so it is only fair that they at least be granted a fixed salary of Rs 10,000, as their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh are receiving. The case of these ASHA workers is being supported by the Telangana Voluntary and Community Healthworkers Union (TVCHU) and the state association of ASHA workers led by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). The workers are also demanding that pay revision be implemented, as per which they are entitled to a 30 per cent hike. Contract workers and outsourced staff were promised a 30 per cent increment under the 11th Pay Revision Commission in March, which has not been implemented yet. Source: HR Katha

Earlier, the MLAs were drawing a basic salary of Rs 12,000 per month New Delhi: Delhi MLAs, who were earlier earning a basic salary of Rs 12,000 per month, will now receive Rs 30,000 as basic income. This follows the approval given by the Delhi Cabinet to hike their salary and allowances, which is apparently lower than that of the MLAs of other states. Henceforth, the MLAs of Delhi will get a total of Rs 90,000 a month, including basic salary and other allowances. Earlier, this amount was Rs 54,000, exclusive of reimbursements. The revised reimbursement structure is yet to be disclosed. The MLAs will now receive Rs 25,000 as constituency allowance, Rs 15,000 as secretariat allowance, Rs 10,000 as conveyance allowance and Rs 10,000 towards telephone bills. The other reimbursements are paid in the form of electricity and water bills, medical treatment, allowance for attending assembly sessions daily (not more than 40 days a year) and House committee meetings, pension, family pension, yearly travel and monthly reimbursement for data entry operators. A revision has been pending ever since the last revision in 2011. About five years ago, a change in the compensation structure of Delhi MLAs was mooted, when it was proposed that the basic salary of MLAs be raised to Rs 54,000 and the total salary inclusive of allowances be hiked to Rs 2.1 lakh. However, instead of a basic salary of Rs 54,000, the Centre has now approved a basic salary of Rs 30,000. Source: HR Katha