Cognizant Adds 25% to Base Pay 

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp has raised its employees’ salaries. The company will pay 25% of base pay to some employees in India and the Philippines.

Chief Executive Officer Bryan Humphries said majority of its offshore workforce work from home amid COVID-19 pandemic. 

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a three-week lockdown for the country’s 1.3 billion people. It is the biggest lockdown happening worldwide in different nations due to the rapid virus spread. It has shutdown Asia’s third largest economy causing massive lay-offs globally and leaving millions of jobless people. 

Technology news reported the Philippine Congress has granted President Rodrigo Duterte extra emergency powers earlier this week. It was in a bid to avert chaos from a rapid spread of COVID-19. The Philippines was also the first Southeast Asian country to adopt lockdown measures.

In an email to employees, Humphries said, “we are all dealing with a crisis that brings new challenges every day.” “Even with all of the preparation and foresight”, he added. “It’s hard to imagine that we or anyone could have developed a playbook to anticipate the full impact of COVID-19.”

Cognizant Gives Extra Pay

The modern technology, New Jersey-based firm employs around 203,700 workers in the country of India. 

Humphries said, “I appreciate that many of you are working extremely long days, weekends included. “Some of you have given over virtually all of your personal time to helping clients and colleagues.” Furthermore, he said that the extra pay will be processed with their employees’ April paycheck.

India has a huge outsourcing industry which has recently adopted work-from-home. It serves as an option for BPO companies as they try to figure out business continuity plans.

The company has enabled work from home operations by provisioning new laptops and encrypting desktops for employees in India. They have as well provided additional bandwidth connectivity. All are with the appropriate client permissions and security protocols.

The additional pay-out which is 25% of base pay, will cover more than two-thirds of Cognizant in India. Company employees up to an associate level are eligible for the extra pay. 

Humphries said, “Cognizant is experiencing the effects of this public health emergency.” “On both the demand and fulfillment sides of our business, from London to Mumbai to Manila and New York.” The Philippines is under a state of national emergency. 

“We support these and other efforts by governments across the world to flatten the curve and contain the spread of Covid-19,” Humphries said.