Work From Home Extended Till Dec 31st

With Corona Virus pandemic wrecking havoc and there seems to be no end in sight, the Department of Telecom has decided to extend the exemption given to the Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS) industries. As the time period for Work From Home (WFM) was expiring on July 31st, the government has decided to extend the relaxations till Dec 31st. “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,” the Department of Telecommunications said in a tweet.

In March 2020, the DoT relaxed certain norms for OSPs till April 30th to facilitate work from home (WFH) amid the coronavirus pandemic which was further extended till July 31st. With the latest decision, it’s extended till Dec 31st.

The government’s move brings cheers to lakhs of employees of IT and BPO companies. It can be noted that about 90 percent of the IT workforce has been Working From Home since March due to Covid-19 pandemic. While the IT industry is estimated to have 4.3 million workforce, 3.87 million workforce has been confined to WFM whereas the rest are critical functions who are going to offices with strict guidelines of physical distance and wearing masks.

While the IT industry has been asking the government for extending relaxations, DoT’s decision comes in handy as it’d help companies to optimise their existing real-estate and adopt a blended model of WFM and from office with limited staff.

“Thank you to the government for their tremendous support on the new ways of working from day 1. This has helped tremendously in further elevating our standing and responsiveness globally,” tweeted Rishad Premji, chairman of Wipro.

“Thank u @rsprasad n Secretary @DoT_India for your strong support for Indian IT. This will ensure business continuity n employee safety.. n also increase our talent pool to tier 2 n 3 cities,” tweeted Debjani Ghosh, president of Nasscom.