Coronavirus: Bengaluru IT Firms Closed As 70% Infected Are Techies; Tata Motors Too Declare Work From Home

From Monday, Tata Motors has asked its staff in office-based roles at headquarters and regional offices to work from home in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal memo by the company’s Managing Director and CEO Guenter Butschek to its employees.

Further, the Technology firms based in Bengaluru have extended the work-from-home policy after the Karnataka government asked companies to adopt precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Why Would This Happen? 

Basically, the company has constituted a team to monitor and initiate actions to reduce risk to employees and has developed a three tier response plan based on incidence of infection in cities it operates it or has manufacturing sites.

Further, Tata Motors has suspended international travel for employees and domestic travel involving public transport (air, rail or road) is made subject to approval, while biometric attendance system has been replaced by card swiping.

Butschek said with coronavirus being declared a pandemic by the WHO and its spread in India accelerating, “in the light of these developments and in line with broad global consensus that as a community, we need to act early and social distancing will help break the contagion and help us get ahead of the virus…,” in his letter to employees.

He stated that the company is announcing “additional measures to prepare the organisation for the next level of response. These temporary measures will be based on your role/function/sire and will stay in force till further notice.”

What Other Actions Are Being Taken By Tata?

Further, the meetings or classes involving more than 20 people have been suspended. Apart from that,  pregnant ladies and employees with chronic respiratory and cardiac illness have also been advised to work from home.

On top of that they have also increased the distance between seats in canteen and staggered/extended timings have been introduced by the company as part of measures to prevent coronavirus infection.

What About Infosys And Google?

The IT majors, Infosys Ltd and Google Inc. have allowed employees to work from home for varying periods of time.

Further, Infosys has evacuated one of its satellite offices on Friday after one employee came in contact with a suspected Covid-19 patient, said, “Employees have been directed to work from home, and there is no impact on our client deliverables as a result of this temporary evacuation.” However, it was not clear whether the government’s announcement had any role in the company’s decision.

On the other hand, Google also asked its employees to work from home after one of its employees tested positive earlier this week.

What About Other Companies?

Alarmingly, three of the six confirmed Covid-19 patients in Bengaluru work in the IT industry.

Dell sanitized the entire floor and asked all his colleagues to work from home, after an employee of Dell Technologies tested positive with the wife and child as well.

Same of the Mindtree Ltd, after an employee tested positive, it has taken adequate precautionary measures for all its employees. 

While talking about the subject, Flipkart said “In light of the current updates on the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation and keeping in mind the well-being of our employees, we have decided to extend work from home for our employees till the end of next week,” in a statement.

Several companies operating in the tech corridors and parks in the city have asked its employees to work from home, besides following general guidelines on Covid-19, which have been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), since the first reported case of a Bengaluru-based information technology (IT) professional testing positive for the virus, 

As the employees of IT majors often travel to on-site locations, the possibility of contracting the virus is high, and the chances of the virus spreading among other employees upon their return to India increases.