Tamil Nadu govt relents on IT industry demand, permits up to 10% of employees to work from office in Chennai

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday relented on the demand of the IT industry and permitted up to 10% of employees to work from office in the Greater Chennai police limits.
The move will benefit large IT players like TCS, HCL, Cognizant, IBM and others that have thousands of employees, normally working out of offices in Chennai and its suburbs.
In a statement, the state government said the employees should be ferried to work in buses operated by the companies. The relaxation in working norms comes into force immediately.
Earlier, the state government, while stipulating working norms from July 6 - for various industries operating in Greater Chennai police limits - had permitted 50% of employees of IT/ITeS companies to work from office. But, it came with a rider that limited the maximum number of employees to 80.
The IT industry had taken up the issue with the state government and explained that why a certain number of employees are needed in office to handle critical services.
A team from the industry had met state IT secretary Hans Raj Verma last Friday and submitted a memorandum to the government explaining the need to have a larger number of employees working from office.