Personnel Ministry drafts guidelines for ‘Work from home’ in government offices post lockdown
While asserting that the central government employees may have to work with staggered attendance and variable working hours, the Personnel Ministry has come out with a draft for ‘work from home’ for the staff post-COVID-19 lockdown.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) may give an option for work from home to the eligible officers and staff for 15 days in a year as a matter of policy, it said. As per the report, there are 48.34 lakh central government employees. The Personnel Ministry stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many ministries to work from home to maintain the social distancing in an order to contain the spread of coronavirus.
"Many ministries/departments in the Government of India have successfully managed and rendered exemplary results in the fight against the global pandemic outbreak during the lockdown period by leveraging e-office and video conferencing facilities of National Informatics Centre (NIC). This was the first-of-its-kind experience," it said.
Meanwhile, it is likely that for the near future, the central secretariat will continue to go for staggered attendance and variable working hours to maintain the social distancing at the workplace, the ministry added. "Therefore, a framework for work from home is important to standardize the operating procedure even post-lockdown and to ensure safety and security of the information, while accessing government files and information from home," it said further.
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Reportedly, a new set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been decided for the employees to ensure smooth functioning of the government for continuity of the office works. The reports also suggested that the employees will be provided with the logistic supports in the form of laptop/ desktop by the respective ministries and departments. Likewise, the employee may also get reimbursement for the internet services that they would use while working from home.
-PTC News
