Employees issue due to pay cut during COVID 19 pandemic lockdown - restaurant delivery boys are denying to deliver the food

Hi everyone, I am working as an HR professional in the restaurant industry in Dubai.

As we are all facing the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic nowadays, and like many other companies, my company is also experiencing a business loss. The restaurant is currently only engaged in food delivery business due to the lockdown.

The company has implemented a pay cut for all employees, leading to delivery boys refusing to deliver food as they demand their full salary. Management had to comply with their demands as the business is heavily reliant on delivery services, which cannot run smoothly without the delivery staff.

Subsequently, other staff from various departments such as kitchen, housekeeping, and F&B service are now voicing similar concerns and threatening to stop working if they do not receive their full salaries.

I am at a loss on how to handle this situation, and so are the Department Heads of the respective teams.

Kindly assist us by sharing your valuable suggestions and ideas to address this situation.

We eagerly await your kind and positive response at the earliest.

As your hotel business now purely depends on the delivery of food packets due to Covid-19, please bear in mind that some services are continuing. These services include Kitchen service, housekeeping staff, and technical staff (electricians, carpenters, plumbers, etc.). Hence, if you decide to give full salary to your delivery boys, staff from these services are also eligible to receive full salary, and their demand is reasonable and justified.

If management has decided to implement a pay cut, it should be uniformly applied. Giving full salary only to the delivery staff would constitute discrimination, which other staff may not tolerate. Due to Covid-19, services of only the staff who serve food at the table are suspended.

Dear Ankita,

I think that your Indian operations are also included in the query. If the situation described pertains to your operations abroad only, people like us are clueless for we are not aware of any instructions by the respective States pertaining to employees during the State-imposed lockdown nor the provisions of labor laws in force there. In short, you may have to handle the situation based on the terms of the contract of employment or conventions, if any, followed in the past regarding your inability to provide employment to all.

So far as India is concerned, though the Governments have issued various executive instructions under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, which include the payment of wages/salary to the employees during the lockdown period, the continued extension of the lockdown creates various questions of law like the propriety of the State to issue such orders under the DMA, 2005. That's why the Supreme Court of India, which initially turned down the plea of certain managements to grant stay, subsequently directed the State not to take any penal action against non-payment of wages for the present. Leaving those industries where Work-From-Home is feasible, all other industries even situated in areas where relaxation is granted by the State find it difficult to fully resume their activities as usual and revive themselves because of the restrictions combined with the relaxation. The hotel industry is truly one among them. Since the matter is Sub-Judice, let's avoid discussing the pros and cons of the orders of the State and try to address the situation referred to in the post from a practical angle.

In an extreme situation like a lockdown in the wake of COVID-19, it is indisputable that the moral obligations of employers give way to their contractual obligations to their employees for they have no immediate source of fall-back. But when the lockdown continues indefinitely, practically it is not possible for the employers to sustain all as usual. Even if the employer is only able to run his operations at no loss-no gain, he cannot do so by providing employment to all employees with the same degree of employment benefits. The only feasible alternative is retention of the minimum number of suitable employees required for the limited and essential operations and sending others temporarily out of employment with some compensation as per law and with an assurance to take them back when normalcy returns.

Therefore, the HR and the respective functional heads have to initiate a dialogue with the employees and try to convince them. There should be no discrimination as suggested by our friend Mr. Rkn61.

Your predicament is understandable, as the delivery boys have gotten away with full salary, and the HODs are clueless on how to convince their boys on the salary deductions.

It is not only that these days the F&B industry is critically dependent on the delivery boys, but it needs no emphasis that in your industry they are the ones who are most exposed to the dangers posed by Covid-19. They are out on the roads, streets, apartments, crisscrossing their territory, and directly in touch with all and sundry, literally playing with fire and amidst lurking fear. Such a situation is not being faced by the kitchen staff or housekeeping personnel. Now, with considerably reduced footfall in the hotels, their risk factor is considerably reduced. So the working conditions of delivery boys are incomparable with the in-house staff in the hotel.

As an HR executive, you will have to constantly communicate with the departmental heads on how the interests of the organization can be served in this difficult time, and the top management has to be the role models if a wage cut is being effected.