After he remarks on the 90-hour workweek, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) chairman SN Subrahmanyan is back with another bold statement. This time, he has spoken about welfare schemes, stating that India's labour shortage is driven by these schemes, which discourage workers from migrating for jobs.

Speaking at the CII's Mystic South Global Linkages Summit 2025 in Chennai, Subrahmanyan highlighted a decline in the movement of constructionworkers. According to him, many labourers prefer stability over relocation, as government schemes provide financial security and comfort.

Subrahmanyan expressed greater concern over the availability of labourers than staff attrition, despite L&T employing around 2.5 lakh staff and 4 lakh labourers at any given time. According to Business Today, he stated, “While attrition among staff does bother me, I am more worried about the availability of labourers today.”

Subrahmanyan pointed out that many labourers are unwilling to relocate for work, possibly due to a thriving local economy, government welfare schemes, and direct benefit transfers (DBTs). He emphasized that this reluctance is not limited to blue-collar workers, urging the need for new HR policies to address changing workforce dynamics.

Recalling his early career at L&T, he said, “When I joined as a graduate engineer, my boss told me, ‘If you are from Chennai, you go to Delhi and work.’ But today, if I ask someone from Chennai to work in Delhi, he says bye. It’s a different world of work today, and we have to see how to make HR policies flexible.”

Previously, the L&T chairman sparked controversywith his remarks on work culture, expressing disappointment over not being able to make employees work on Sundays.

“I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy because I work on Sundays,” Subrahmanyan was heard saying in an undated video that surfaced on Reddit.

“What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?” he added, urging employees to come to the office and start working.

The video triggered strong reactions online, with many comparing his remarks to Infosys founder Narayana Murthy’s controversial statement last year, where he suggested that young professionals should work 70 hours a week to enhance India’s global competitiveness.