After a long gap, the government has asked all its employees to attend their offices as it ended the work from home regime for them amid declining Covid-19 cases in the country. The rule has already been implemented from a day back after the Union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions announced the decision in a statement. India has been recording lower number of Covid-19 cases, with the daily infections remaining below the one lakh mark a day back.

Work From Home for Central Government Employees End

The Union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions in a statement on Sunday, February 6, said that it was decided that the government would enable 100 per cent work from office from February 7, Monday, following a meeting chaired by Union minister Jitendra Singh. The work from home regime was done away with.

“…Dr Jitendra Singh announced this evening that a review of the pandemic situation was done today and in view of the decline in the number of COVID cases as well as decline in positivity rate, it has been decided that full office attendance shall be resumed from tomorrow and employees at all levels, without any exemption, shall attend office on regular basis with effect from February 7, 2022,” said the statement from the personnel ministry.

The minister further informed that the head of departments shall, however, ensure that employees wear face masks at all times and continue to follow the COVID appropriate behaviour even if they do not work from home, the statement added.

The present guidelines will be implemented till February 15, the ministry said. “This is in supersession of the earlier Circular according to which the 50 per cent office attendance rule had been extended till 15th of February. But, after obtaining inputs from the relevant quarters and review of the situation, a fresh OM (Office Memorandum) is issued by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) informing that all the employees at all levels, without any exemption, will report to office from tomorrow, that is, 7th of February 2022. There will no more be “work from home” option for any employee.”

Will TCS, Infosys, Wipro Take Cue?

Most of the IT companies, including TCS had earlier decided to open up their offices from January, ending the work from home rule, but the Omicron variant of coronavirus that triggered the third wave put that plan on hold.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest IT services firm said in December that 90 per cent of its associates were working from home. Any plans to return to office will be “calibrated move”, the IT giant added.

HCL Technologies mentioned earlier mentioned that it would continue to monitor the emergence and impact of Covid-19 variants before calling people back to office.

Priortising the health and safety of employees and contractors, Cognizant said it would continue work from home model. “The health and safety of our employees and contractors, families, our clients and our communities remain our priority,” company said, stressing on work from home.

Keeping in mind the changing Covid-19 situation in the country, Infosys was also taking cautious approach for reopening the offices and wanted to continue work from home. “We expect to operate in hybrid mode for most of the coming year,” said Richard Lobo, executive vice-president and HR head at Infosys to the the Economic Times.