L&T Faces 45,000 Labour & Engineer Shortage

Mumbai, Jun 26 (PTI) Diversified L&T Group is facing a manpower shortage of over 45,000 labourers and engineers across its businesses, Chairman S N Subrahmanyan said on Wednesday.

The flagship engineering, procurement and construction business is grappling with a labour shortage of 25,000-30,000 labourers, while the information technology and IT-enabled services business is facing a shortage of 20,000 engineers, he told reporters here.

The prospect of higher earnings is leading Indians to go abroad in hostile places like Russia-Ukraine or Israel in search of employment opportunities, chairman emeritus of L&T, A M Naik, said.

This is not the first time that the company is going public regarding challenges on manpower. Even last year Subrahmanyan said it is facing challenges despite wanting to hire over 30,000 labourers.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Subrahmanyan attributed the labour shortage to issues like demand for certain skillsets where there might be lack of availability, a push from clients to execute projects faster, certain events like elections and changes in weather patterns.

He said the adverse weather events have led to changes in working hours in some projects wherein no work is happening during the afternoons except essential or critical works.

The company is also taking care of its employees by offering them transport facilities, health drinks and food at the projects, he said.

Subrahmanyan also said the company has skill centres and other initiatives that can act as a mitigating factor.

At any point of time, the company engages over 4 lakh labourers possessing specific skills like carpentry, masonry, etc, across its projects, he said.

On the engineering talent side, he said an attrition of over 10 per cent makes it more challenging and this ensures that there is a shortage of over 14,000 engineers at any point of time.

"I think we would at the moment, need about 20,000 people, including attrition... that is engineers," he said.