Airlines, steel companies, auto makers race to get vaccine for staff

Companies are asking their employees to be termed as essential workers and are in talks with vaccine makers for bulk procurement

Airlines, airports, steel and auto manufacturers, and fast-moving consumer goods firms are jockeying for Covid-19 vaccines, hoping that getting employees vaccinated will help them resume full-scale manufacturing.

Company bosses are calling on the government to give their workers priority access to the shots, arguing that their employees are needed to keep the economy running or face high risks of contracting the virus. Some of them have even started exploratory talks with vaccine makers to secure supplies for employees.

“I am certain that the government will prioritise manufacturing workers who are an integral part of the economy for the vaccine. However, it also depends on the quantity of production of the vaccine. At Maruti, we have started a discussion on how to handle the logistics, so that we can procure and vaccinate our employees as and when it is available for the industry,” said R C Bhargava, chairman at India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki. The company, which employs around 16,000 people, has three manufacturing facilities.

India’s largest domestic airline IndiGo has approached the ministry of health to prioritise frontline workers in getting the jab. If approved, the airline plans to vaccinate thousands of pilots, cabin crew, and airport staff.  “We are happy to sponsor and support the immunisation of our employees through vaccines as and when they are made available. We believe that much like health care workers, aviation employees are also frontline warriors supporting the process of integrating people of the nation,” said Raj Raghvan, senior vice-president and head HR at IndiGo.

The government will start administering the vaccines from January 16. While the initial focus is to vaccinate health care and frontline professionals by July, the market is expected to open up for retail and institutional sale even before that.

Targeting that, steel firms like ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS), JSW group, as well as FMCG major ITC have approached vaccine makers for procuring vaccines for their employees.

“We have approached vaccine manufactures and are in exploratory talks. ITC would certainly like to extend the vaccination to employees and we are intending to purchase it once it is commercially available. All categories of personnel — whether workers or managers, engaged in manufacturing, sales, hospitality — need to be administered the vaccine on priority to keep economic activity progressing in the larger interests of the country and the organisation,” a spokesperson of ITC said.

The FMCG major is also one of the largest hotel chains in the country, operating over 100 hotels. “Whenever the vaccines are available to corporate houses, we shall certainly take them on priority and provide it free to all employees,” said Dilip Oommen, CEO at AMNS, which has over 13,000 employees.

Hari Marar, MD and CEO at Bengaluru Airport, said the company has approached the Karnataka government to set up a vaccination centre at the airport premises so that they can take the jabs.

Some of the companies said they will encourage—but not mandate—employees to get vaccines. “We will not get into administering doses to our staff.  But there will certainly be an awareness drive and encouragement to employees to get inoculated at the nearest vaccine centre, once it becomes available to all,” said Mayank Shah, senior category head at Parle.

Industry lobby groups have approached the government to approve using corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for vaccinating their employees. The proposal has come from the Federation of Ind­ian Chambers Commerce and Industry.  Companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore, or revenues exceeding Rs 1,000 crore, or net profit over Rs 5 crore have to set aside 2 per cent of their average profit over the past three years on CSR programme.

The corporate affairs ministry has ensured that firms could classify spends on tackling Covid-19 as part of CSR expenditure. It has said expenditure incurred by firms on awareness campaigns would be counted towards CSR expenditure.