Expanding Workforce Without a Canteen: What Are the Best Alternatives for Employee Meals?

I am working on a project in a manufacturing unit where they are planning to increase the workforce to 250+ employees, but there is no space available for a canteen. What alternatives can the company consider for a canteen? Please share your knowledge and experience to help with this situation.

Thanks and Regards,
Anuradha Panday

You can ask the Admin department to maintain a hall for having lunch. You can ask them to set up tables and chairs. The employees can purchase food from the caterer and have it in the hall, or you can also maintain a veranda for this purpose.

Regards,
Sumayya

As per the rules of the Factory Act of 1948, for any manufacturing unit with a workforce exceeding 250 employees, it is compulsory to have a canteen.

You can offer them Sodexo passes in lieu of the canteen facility of ₹1000 each and let the employees bring their own food from home. Talk with their union if they have one.

As per rules, canteen facility is mandatory if the employees' strength is more than 250. However, due to space problems, you can convince employees by offering them a lunch allowance and providing sitting space. Organize periodical lunch sessions for different categories of employees to accommodate them easily. Discuss the issue with the Union and ask for their solutions.

V D Patel

As per rules, providing canteen facilities is mandatory. You can hire the next building adjacent to your factory premises and set up a canteen for all the workers. For the supervisory/managerial staff, the canteen staff can make alternative arrangements to supply food within their office premises.

Alternatively, you can make arrangements with caterers who can operate a mobile van near the premises to provide breakfast at 8:00 am, tea and snacks at 10:30 am, lunch at 1:00 pm, and tea & snacks at 4:30 pm, as required by the workers/managers/unions. They can supply food at the rest area/shed provided on the factory premises, and the mobile canteen will clean the premises after serving the workers.

These options could serve as remedies for the situation, and other members can also provide insights to resolve the issue.

I agree with Mr. Bhaskar; his suggestion seems to be good. There are many caterers available. You just need to find the right person and ask them to prepare food from outside and bring it directly to your office. At the same time, you can allocate a room for storing these food items. Then, during lunchtime, you can stagger the timing by 15 minutes for each department due to space constraints.

Dear friend,

What I personally feel is in a manufacturing plant, employees should be divided into units. For example, if there are 8 units, divide them into 2 groups. Let the first group have their lunch at 1:00 - 1:30 and the second unit have their lunch at 1:30 - 2:00. Talk to their union and implement it. It's just a suggestion, friend.

Dear seniors/friends, please suggest whether this is possible.

I agree with all of your opinions, but what should we do during inspections? Because the inspector will ask about the canteen. Please suggest if I am mistaken.

Thanks,
Monu

You can display a board in the Restroom provided stating the timings of the canteen and subsidized rate of the items sold. You can take him to the canteen when the workmen/staff are having food. For preparing Tea and Coffee, you can have the Nescafe coffee vending machine in the office itself. Or construct a small room and dining hall with a sheet roof on the terrace of the Admin Building or any factory office and make it a dining hall. Never panic while answering the factory inspector. All the best.

Dear friend,

Generally, we all know that in an organization, for meals, a certain share is contributed by the employee as well as the employer as per their policies. The management then issues meal tokens to the employees and deducts the cost from their salary based on the employee's contribution. The employee has to take meals from the canteen, or if there is no space for a canteen, then from a caterer who is picked up by management by issuing a work order and has to provide space for eating.

It is good, in the case of a caterer, if the employees give their meal tokens at the time of their intime to the plant to the concerned person who writes the names of the employees and gives the order to the caterer who brings a sufficient number of meals without any loss to both parties. Subsequently, the canteen management or caterer may raise a bill and send the bill to the finance and accounts department through the proper channel. Then management can pay them for it. The management has to prepare a time schedule once or twice based on the number of employees.

Regards,
Manoz

Hello everybody,

This thread has created a synergy with so many alternatives. Thank you, one and all, for your valuable suggestions and ideas. I hope one of them is surely implemented.

I had another doubt: is it necessary to provide tea and snacks to the employees? Please post your ideas, knowledge, and thoughts on this question as well.

Thank you so much, everybody!!!

Regards,
Anuradha Panday

Just it is a refreshment to the workers/employees working in the factory, and it will increase productivity after they get refreshed. That's the purpose of providing tea and snacks; it will bind the workmen from loitering unnecessarily from one place to another place without much involvement in work and wasting time. If you question, they will simply say, "we are going for tea or refreshment." Because you cannot avoid such movement. Instead, if you provide them with refreshment, then obviously it can be completed within 15 minutes, and from the 16th minute, the work will commence.