Amid the Pandemic, Capgemini Raises Salary for its India Staff

The French IT services giant Capgemini has raised salary for its employees in India in recognition of their service amid the lockdown imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pay rise will benefit more than 70% of the company’s staff in the South Asian country, reported the country’s business daily, The Economic Times, citing the company’s Indian CEO Ashwin Yardi.

The paper did not give the precise figure on the amount of the raise but confirmed that the wage increment would be processed within the April paycheck. As many as 84,000 employees will benefit from the pay rise, according to Yardi.

The French firm, more than half of whose global workforce is based out of India, has also vowed that it would not lay off any of its staff in the country.

The employees who worked out of hotels and other guest accommodations during the lockdown period will be paid 10,000 rupees (US$130) each.

“This is a black swan event, and at this point, it’s not a question of the timeline, but how our business will evolve,” Yardi told the news daily.

Aside from the pay rise, Capgemini has also announced that it would hire nearly 8,000 freshly graduated engineers in India this year.

All the new hires will work on projects related to new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

The outsourcer has also set up a US$27 million fund for supporting its employees and their family members in the event of any health emergency.