companies employees work home coronavirus dot allowed

Govt Eases Work From Home Norms For IT Firms Amid Coronavirus PanicMany companies have already allowed their employees to work from homeIT companies can offer work from home without paying a deposit of INR 1 CrBut companies will have to store call records of employees for a period of oneyearAfter employees of Paytm and Google tested positive for coronavirus and thedisease Covid-19, many other companies have now allowed their employees toeither work remotely from their homes or to even go on paid leaves.While there is no law governing work from home for employees, according toMedianama, IT companies, which fall under the category of other serviceproviders (OSPs), have to deposit INR 1 Cr with the department oftelecommunication (DoT) to allow employees this facility. It is worthmentioning that OSPs include international call centres, business processingoutsourcing centres (BPO), knowledge process outsourcing centres, medicaltranscription companies, among others.But with the number of coronavirus cases increasing rapidly in the country,DoT has now allowed companies to grant work from home to their employeeswithout depositing any fees. Additionally, these companies can now alsoprovide work from home to employees without seeking permission from the DoT.In a notification dated March 13, DoT said that it has decided to grant therelaxations till April 30, 2020. The notification was posted by IT ministerRavi Shankar Prasad on Twitter. Prasad said that in view of the concernsrelated to coronavirus outbreak and on the request of industry body NASSCOM,DoT has provided for certain exemptions that will facilitate the Indian ITcompanies to offer work from home to their employees.Companies will have to release information such as remote workers’ names,addresses, and static IP addresses to local offices of the DoT. They will alsohave to maintain call records of employees for a period of one year as well.In case of violations, the OSPs will be fined INR 5 Lakhs per work from homelocation which will come under the radar of DoT for breaking the law.NASSCOM’s chairman Keshav Murugesh said that the industry body will encourageits members to adhere to the amended clauses and prioritise theirimplementation. Murugesh added that the companies should leverage telepresenceand video conferencing to enable seamless engagement while ensuring that thereis minimal disruption to the business.“We also recognise that the health and safety of employees are of paramountconcern. The objective here is to ensure employee well-being while hedging anegative impact on the industry’s overall productivity,” he added.Leverage cloud technology to grow your business at scale, build strategies toenhance your operations, and get inspired by success stories of businesses andindividuals alike. Register for AWS Summit Online 2021!