BPO, IT Employees Get Extension To Work From Home Till End Of 2020

In the present situation almost 85 per cent of the IT workforce is working from home and a few who are engaged in performing critical functions are going to offices.

Representational Picture (AFP)

New Delhi, July 22: In the pre-Covid era work from home remained one of the perks enjoyed by a few but if you are in the IT and BPO sector, then the privilege stays on till the end of this year as the government on Tuesday extended the period which was to expire on July 31. Also Read: Coronavirus Vaccine Likely By December, To Cost Under Rs 1000 Per Shot: Report In a breather for lakhs of employees in the sector, the government has extended connectivity norms for work from home for IT and BPO companies till December 31. The extension in the period was communicated through a tweet on Tuesday that read, "DoT has further extended the relaxations in the terms and conditions for other service providers up to 31st December 2020 to facilitate work from home in view of the ongoing concern due to Covid-19." In the present situation, almost 85 per cent of the IT workforce is working from home and a few who are engaged in performing critical functions are going to offices. In March, the DoT relaxed certain norms for other service providers till April 30 to facilitate work from home (WFH) amid the Covid-19 outbreak which was further extended till July 31. Confirmed cases of covid-19 in India has crossed 11.92 lakh with 28,732 people losing their lives till Tuesday.

Meanwhile, IT major such TCS has already aimed to shift 75 per cent of its employees to WFH by 2025. The IT company will try to leverage cutting-edge collaboration software, evolve new team and organisational rituals and design elaborate training.  Besides these steps, it will look into the on-boarding processes in which new joiners get to spend time at local offices before ‘earning’ the right to WFH. Globally, Amazon has extended its corporate work-from-home policy through January of next year. The company is also planning to continue restricting nonessential business travel through the end of the year. The etailers’s decision is in line with the IT behemoth Facebook and Google, which have already announced work-from-home policies that extend through 2020. However, Microsoft is mulling opening the offices in phases in October whereas Apple is planning to shut its offices through the end of the year.