Companies in Gurugram ask staff to work remotely

Many companies in Gurugram asked their employees to work remotely or return home early on Tuesday, taking a cautious stance as reports of fresh violence as a continuation of Monday's clashes in the neighbouring Nuh district emerged.

Companies in the Haryana city, which houses thousands of factories, including of Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp, MNCs such as Nestle, Coke and Pepsi, corporate majors like Bharti Airtel, are closely monitoring the law-and-order situation, their executives said. Several of them have already asked their employees to work from home till the situation improves, while others said they will take a call on physical attendance at offices based on the directions issued by the state administration.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel asked a bulk of its 4,500-odd staffers at the Gurugram office to return home early afternoon Tuesday. "If the situation remains unchanged, Airtel may issue an advisory asking employees of the Gurugram office to work from home tomorrow (Wednesday) on safety grounds. However, since telecom is an essential service, Airtel's field officers from the networks team will be available on ground to ensure seamless connectivity," a spokesperson told ET.

Deloitte issued an advisory to Gurugram-based employees to work remotely until the situation improves, chief people and experience officer Deepti Sagar said. At IT firms TCS and HCLTech, several teams have been told to stay at home and not travel to the office, people in the know said. "We have been informed by our respective reporting heads to stay at home. Any in-person meetings have been moved to virtual meetings or have been cancelled," said a TCS employee.

Companies in Delhi are also taking a cautious stance amid the developments in the neighbourhood. "As a precautionary measure, offices have either been closed early today (Tuesday), shut till further orders or companies have resorted to work from home until things are under control," said CII-Delhi chairman Puneet Kaura. "However, so far no major disruption has been reported from the manufacturing sector in the state."

Panasonic India, which has operations in Gurugram, asked its employees to work from home on Wednesday and chief human resources officer Adarsh Mishra said it will evaluate the situation Wednesday evening "and take a call accordingly". Auto makers, which have large manufacturing facilities in Gurugram, are evaluating the situation and will take calls based on directions from the administration, their executives said.