Centre orders work from home for its 50% staffers

New Delhi : The Central Government on Thursday ordered work from home for 50% of its staffers and introduced staggered timings for the rest of the employees to ensure coronavirus does not spread.

The instructions issued will be applicable across all central government departments, state-run firms and other bodies funded by the Centre.

The work from home rule will kick in for Group B and C employees who make up for the overwhelming majority of the 48 lakh employees, an order issued by the Centre’s human resource manager, the Department of Personnel and Training said.

Around 3.1 million people are direct employees of central government and rest are the workers of state-funded firms or bodies.

"Heads of department, or HoDs, may ensure that 50 per cent of Group B and C employees are required to attend office every day, and the remaining 50 per cent staff should be instructed to work from home," the order by DoPT’s Sujata Chaturvedi issued on Thursday said.

According to government data, there are 2.4 lakh Group B officers (60 percent of them are gazetted officers) and 27.7 lakh Group C staffers in the central government.

After the order around 1.1 lakh officials would be required to work from office.

For those who would be coming to office, Wednesday’s order also introduced staggered timings. “It is suggested that three groups of employees may be formed and asked to attend office,” Chaturvedi’s directive said.

The first batch of employees would start their day at 9 am, the second at 9.30 am and the third, at 10 am.

"Similar instructions may be issued to attached/subordinate offices, autonomous/statutory bodies. The Department of Financial Services and Department of Public Enterprises may issue similar instructions regarding financial institutions and public sector undertakings," the DoPT said.