COVID 19: Companies refuse to let us work from home, say Chennai techies

Amid the government’s advisory to private sector companies to take necessary actions to let their employees work from home following the coronavirus scare, several Information Technology companies in Chennai including Cognizant have not provided aid for their employees to work from home. Though some employees have been provided with the option with work from home, many employees are still waiting to know their work status. This has left techies worried about the spread of the virus.

"Though we have a BCP team, and theoretically they know all the processes for work from home, when it comes to implementing it, they are not well equipped to effectively apply the same. We are not allowed to use our personal laptops for security issues", said a techie working in a tech park in Tharamani.

"Some of us commute to work via public transport and it is one of the things that has to be avoided at this time. When the government is trying hard to contain the situation, we have to try out best to cooperate. The numbers of COVID-19 patients are increasing day by day and it is worrying," he added.

Another employee from the same tech park said, "When we approach our higher officials for work from home, their constant answer is that they have not received approval from the client. Although many of our works can be done without having a face-to-face interaction, my company has asked us to mandatorily report to work."

An IT employee from Perungudi stated that none of the employees from their campus have been offered to work from home.

Now that more than 200 positive novel coronavirus cases have been reported in India, the Union Health Ministry has asked all the states to form teams for rapid response at all levels — district, block and village — to check community transmission of the virus. So far, three positive cases of Novel Coronavirus have been reported in Chennai.