Fortum India: Responsible Leadership in Times of Crisis

Fortum started operations in India in 2012 as a producer of solar energy and soon became one of the country's leading clean-energy companies. It was driven by the values and code of conduct established by its parent company, Fortum Oyj. headquartered in Espoo, Finland. In December 2019, Fortum acquired land in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan, India) to construct a 250-megawatt solar power plant. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the world soon after. India initiated a complete national lockdown. Construction activities were suspended, resulting in joblessness of the migrant construction workers. Fortum faced a sudden and acute shortage of construction workers in Jaisalmer. Although the Government of Rajasthan allowed extended work-hours, Fortum India Pvt. Ltd. struggled in deciding what to do. Each choice came with a consequence of either delaying the plant commissioning or bearing additional and high costs towards ensuring safety and health of the workers amidst the fast-spreading pandemic. Employing fewer workers for longer hours may breach universal labour practices, and could thus attract negative attention. Keeping the construction workers employed using regular work hours is expected to increase the construction time due to shortage of construction workers.; Measures to protect workers from COVID infection will increase project costs, rendering the produced power uncompetitive and violating the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). What should Fortum do?

• Corporate misconduct
• Social enterprise
• Labor
• Business ethics
• Corporate social responsibility
• Organizational behavior
• Covid