Covid: Flipkart extends support to families of deceased employees

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New Delhi:  Walmart-owned Flipkart has announced a new policy for employees that includes extended medical coverage and support for families of deceased employees as part of its Covid-19 relief efforts.

Flipkart continues to prioritise employee well-being with a slew of measures extending care and wellness initiatives to all employees, including supply chain staff, across the country, the company said in a blogpost on Wednesday.

Providing details of the policy, the company said its Family Support Policy for India extends additional support for the families and dependents of Flipkart employees who have lost their lives to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The family of the employee who succumbed to Covid-19 will be provided with a life insurance cover to the value of 5X of the employee’s CTC along with a notice period settlement as per their contract, and professional financial assistance programmes.

Flipkart said it will provide education support of up to Rs 1.2 lakh per annum for up to two children of the deceased employee until the children reach 22 years of age, as well as sponsor and extend the current medical insurance cover for the family for a period of 60 months.

“Flipkart will also enable an accelerated ESOP vesting and future liquidation opportunity, as needed. The company will also cover the one-time cost of an independent financial planner,” the blog said.

Flipkart further said it continues to work with hospital partners and local authorities to arrange for vaccinations for all employees across the country over the next two months. Over 15,000 employees and their families have been vaccinated to date.

The e-commerce company is covering the vaccination cost for employees and five dependents each.

As India reeled under the impact of the deadly second wave of coronavirus infections, several organisations across the spectrum came forward to support the relief efforts. Efforts to ramp up vaccination are also underway. India has so far administered over 24.2 crore jabs to eligible beneficiaries.

NxtGen Infinite Datacenter said it has concluded a vaccination drive for its employees along with their dependents, based in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.

Bike taxi platform Rapido announced the second phase of its #RideToVaccinate initiative and will provide free rides to the nearest Covid-19 vaccination centre out of the designated 18 hospitals to Delhi NCR citizens.

The initiative, it said, is aimed at providing a safe, affordable and accessible commute to citizens eligible for vaccination across Delhi NCR. Interestingly, dating app OkCupid has released an ‘I’m Vaccinated’ profile badge.

“…there is a marked increase in conversations around getting vaccinated. This has also been observed on OkCupid profile bios in India which have seen a huge 763% increase in conversations between March and June 2021 around COVID-19 vaccines and its relevance to daters while selecting a match for themselves,” it said in a statement.

The ‘I’m Vaccinated’ badge lets individuals announce their vaccination status on their profile and also join the vaccinated stack which helps them match with like-minded love interests who have taken the jab.

MyGate, a community management solutions provider, said it had conducted a survey among 11,000 residents in various housing societies across all major cities to understand perceptions around, and interest in, in-society vaccination drives.

The survey found that on average, a home needed 2.8 vaccines, and that 98% of respondents were keen on taking the vaccine within the gates of their housing society as it would mean lesser chance of getting exposed to possible infection.

“The consensus among our users and partners is strong that vaccination drives be conducted within the society gates, and we’re fortunate to be in a position to facilitate this request.

“We believe our technology and operational expertise can be put to good use in this situation and are eager to organise as many vaccination drives for our societies as possible,” MyGate COO and co-founder Abhishek Kumar said.