IT Company Employees Can Work From Home till July 31, Terms and Conditions for VPN Relaxed

Amid Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has relaxed norms for facilitating work from home (WFH) for IT firms till July 31, 2020.

Earlier, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that work from home will become the norm and had relaxed the norms till April 30, 2020.


Prior to lockdown, the companies were not allowed to connect the office VPN to a home infrastructure. After the lockdown exemptions were given to the companies and it was allowed till April 30. This has now been extended till July 31.

As part of the exemptions, the companies do not have to pay a security deposit and doesn’t require agreement for WFH facility for IT and IT-enabled services. Besides, it will be the discretion of the company to allow employees to work from home or ask them to return to the office when needed.
Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, “In response to IT Industry’s request to facilitate WFH for OSPs, @DoT_India had relaxed terms & conditions for VPN till 30.4.20. After discussions with IT Ministers, this relaxation in terms and conditions is extended till 31.7.20.”

He further clarified in another tweet
“Wish to clarify that it is not an extension of #WFH. In response to IT Industry’s request to facilitate WFH for OSPs, @DoT_India had relaxed terms & conditions for VPN till 30.4.20. After discussions with IT Ministers this relaxation in terms & conditions is extended till 31.7.20”

https://twitter.com/rsprasad/status/1255178409430286336?s=20

The DOT announcement means that the companies can now ask its employees to work from home till July 31. However, this is not the extension of WFH. Companies are allowed to start operations with 50 per cent of the workforce at the workplace.

Work from Home – The New Normal?

Most of the management was not comfortable with the concept of WFH before lockdown. However, post lockdown the companies were forced to adapt this concept as there was no other option left. After a few hiccups and initial challenges, the employers and employees have shown a steady learning curve. As a result Work from Home (WFH) is becoming a New Normal now.

In fact, the organizations are planning to come up with new WFH policies for the employees. Many CEOs and HR experts are now of the opinion that post Covid-19, many organizations may adapt WFH for a certain section of employees.


Therefore, many HR experts have started framing new HR policies as the existing policies may not be adequate for WFH concept.