As per the reports, Indian IT services firms including TCS, Tech Mahindra and Wipro have brought back more than 2,000 employees and their families who were stranded overseas on account of the COVID 19-induced travel bans.
Why Would This Happen?
IT firms like Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Tech Mahindra have a remarkable employee base at client locations such as the US, the UK, Japan, Australia and Europe.
But with the COVID-1 outbreak, most of these countries have imposed movement restrictions and work-from-home policies from March.
Hence most of the employees had been willing to return home, according to the firms.
While for some, their employee’s visa was about to lapse and the person would have to be brought back anyway.
In some cases, people who had gone abroad for short-term assignments also got stuck since all the flights suddenly got canceled.
How Did This Happen?
To Bring these stranded employees and their families, both Wipro and Tech Mahindra had booked chartered flights last week.
The global chief people officer and head of marketing at Tech Mahindra, Harshvendra Soin said, “Last week, we have also brought back employees from Japan, and are working towards bringing back associates who are stranded in similar situations from other locations like Europe and Australia,”.
“Employees were also brought home from the UK via the Vande Bharat Mission flight. These included employees whose visas have either expired or are close to expiry. Plans are afoot to organize charter flights from Australia later this month,” said a Wipro spokesperson.
What Do IT Firms Say?
According to IT companies, they are primarily driven by the safety and wellbeing of their employees.
But experts say that there is also a strong business case for bringing back the employees as demand for people onsite has come down with everyone working remotely.
Mostly, these service providers are sitting on a considerable amount of cash on their balance sheets, so they have taken to chartering flights for their employees.
According to estimates, Infosys is estimated to have brought back a few hundred.
While the mid-size IT firm Mindtree has brought back around 130 employees along with their families from multiple geographic locations.
Mindtree CEO, Debashis Chatterjee said, “Some people are sitting on an H-1B and it’s best you bring them back and take them back (to the US) at an appropriate time,”.
He said, “We did thorough due diligence and saw who to bring back. People also want to be closer to their families.”
According to one of Tech Mahindra employees, the company had put in a lot of effort and care into bringing them back and that the families were pleased about being back.
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