NEW DELHI: The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) on Monday wrote to Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya seeking an advisory mandating work from home (WFH) for the IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sector, citing PM Narendra Modi’s recent appeal for fuel conservation and reduced unnecessary travel.
In a letter addressed to the union minister, NITES said the IT and IT-enabled services sector had already demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic that remote work could continue without affecting productivity or business continuity.
The association argued that requiring lakhs of employees to travel daily despite the availability of digital alternatives adds pressure on fuel consumption, road congestion, urban infrastructure and public transport systems. It also said employees in metropolitan cities spend several hours commuting for work that can effectively be done remotely.
“Work From Home in such roles should therefore not be treated merely as an employee preference or corporate flexibility measure. It should be viewed as a responsible economic and national-support measure aligned with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s appeal,” NITES said in a statement.
The body said by mandating WFH for IT employees, would help reduce fuel consumption, environmental burden and unnecessary travel.
According to the association, technology firms, multinational companies, customer support operations and software teams continued servicing global clients and delivering projects while operating remotely for several years.
The letter, signed by NITES president Harpreet Singh Saluja, also stressed that the demand was not intended as a confrontation with employers, but as a measure of “collective national cooperation”.