Global Payments Firm Papaya Global Publishes International COVID-19 Crisis Guides For Employers

The following is a contributed article from a content partner of Benzinga

The COVID-19 coronavirus strain continues to spread around the world and governments are urgently implementing strict measures to contain the deadly virus. Roughly one-third of the global population is already on lockdown. People are being compelled to stay at home in order to limit the spread of infection. Businesses that are able to function through remote work are encouraged to adopt work-from-home schemes.

In this effort to suppress the rate of infection, each country is rolling out its own set of regulations and measures on how employers should manage and provide for their employees during the pandemic. For global employers that rely on outsourcing and distributed workforces, complying with these measures can become a major challenge as they are forced to consider these varying provisions in their human resources (HR) strategies and payroll processes while maintaining business continuity.

In an effort to help global employers make sense of these developments, global payments firm Papaya Global has provided on their blog a set of COVID-19 crisis guides for employers to reference to best navigate this troubled landscape. The guides cover the various economic and labor-related measures that countries are taking in order to help employers comply with regulations and manage their global workforce.

Dealing with the Crisis

Papaya Global, an automated payroll provider and human resource (HR) management platform to global enterprises like Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Intel Corporation INTC, acknowledges the need for global companies to be made aware of the various economic and legislative measures that countries have implemented to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Papaya’s crisis guides include details such as the definitions of essential and non-essential businesses, employee and employer rights, working hours, application of leave benefits, and government subsidies.

For example, for companies that do business in the UK, the Papaya Global guides discuss how the government now mandates that employers with under 250 employees will receive reimbursement for sick pay leave due to COVID-19. For their Denmark entry, the guides cover how the government will shoulder 75 percent of the salaries of employees who would have been terminated due to the pandemic. For those in Australia, the guides also explain how employers can receive wage subsidies for up to six months so that they can keep their staff. 

Awareness of these provisions can be critical for companies seeking to cushion the blow of the pandemic’s effect on their company infrastructure, particularly among businesses that manually manage their payrolls. Global companies face the additional challenge of managing different government measures as payroll managers will have to perform different calculations and apply varying policies to achieve compliance.

Companies Fight for Survival

Many companies have already been hit hard by the pandemic. Some have had to cease operations for the time being as both supply chains and customer demand dry up. About 150 publicly traded companies, including Apple, Inc. AAPL, PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL, and Hewlett Packard Inc. HPQ, have affirmed the negative impact that the COVID-19 crisis will have on their businesses, warning investors that their earnings are projected to take major hits.

A massive swath of companies has also been forced to lay people off, with millions of people in the U.S. alone suddenly without a steady paycheck and, as a result, essentially unable to sustain their lives for the foreseeable future. All told, experts are predicting about 47 million people could become unemployed due to the drastic but necessary lockdown measures that have been enacted to dampen the spread of the virus.

Despite these challenges, conscientious employers are attempting to maintain job security for their employees, although even those running on lean workforces are struggling to make payroll, let alone provide additional benefits for their employees demanded by some of these crisis regulations.

While the current situation might look bleak, there is still some optimism for the world post-pandemic. Most governments and policymakers around the globe are looking for ways to stabilize their economies. Government assistance and guarantees will hopefully help in having a strong economic rebound after the COVID-19 shutdowns. 

Aside from providing relief for their citizens, these government provisions are intended to enable companies to return to their pre-crisis form and help offset economic losses. What will be key is for companies to do their part and be compliant with these measures.