Tech Mahindra to put up employees at guest house during ten-day Pune lockdown

PUNE: As Pune goes into a ten day lockdown from midnight on Monday, 13th July, Tech Mahindra has made arrangements for employees to stay at the company guest house. As per the Pune Municipal Corporation notification, IT firms can operate at 15% capacity through the ten- day lockdown. A Tech Mahindra spokesperson said that the company is currently operating with less than 1% of its employees as against the government mandated 15% for running critical engagements that cannot be moved to home.

“However given that some of our associates have to travel from or through containment zones, we have provided an option to stay at our guest house. Associates who are currently staying at our guest house have voluntarily opted to avoid daily risk of travel,” said the spokesperson. While it is unusual for a tech firm to do something like this, the current lockdown also makes it harder for people to travel to work, even if it has been permitted by the local administration.

However, the National Information Technologies Employees Senate (NITES) said that Tech Mahindra employees were not happy with this decision. “Employees of TechMahindra are being forced to stay in Guest House, against their will under the lockdown period starting 14th July 2020. The employees were suddenly informed to pack their bags as until lockdown they will be staying at guesthouse,” said a NITES spokesperson.


He said that they had written to the CM and the District Collector to order 100% mandatory work from home for all IT, ITeS, BPO and KPO employees.