Work from Home in Special Economic Zones to be Allowed for All Employees; Know Why

The government has decided to allow work from home for all employees in Special Economic Zones (SEZ), Union commerce minister has said. Goyal told reporters that the move will create employment opportunities in small cities and will also contribute to the increase of export of services. The government received the request from many quarters, after which it decided to allow work from home in these zones.

“We’ve decided to allow work from home in all SEZ sectors as a request for it has come from many quarters. It’ll create employment opportunities in small cities and increase the export of services,” Goyal told reporters on Tuesday. His comments came after  Board of Trade meeting on the day.

Earlier in July, the government had said that work from home will be allowed in special economic zones (SEZs) for a maximum period of one year, and may be extended to maximum 50 per cent of total employees including contractual employees.

As per that notification, work from home provision could be extended to maximum 50 per cent of total employees including contractual employees of the unit, the government said. However, there was flexibility granted to Development Commissioner (DC) of SEZs to approve a higher number of employees (more than 50 per cent) for any bona-fide reason to be recorded in writing.

“Work From Home is now allowed for a maximum period of one-year. However, same may further be extended for a period of one year at a time by the DC on the request of units,” the department of commerce said in its notification.

The July notice also stated that the SEZ unit would be responsible to provide equipment and secured connectivity to those employees working from home under the new rule. “SEZ Units will provide equipment and secured connectivity for the purpose of WFH to perform authorized operations of the units and the permission to take out the equipment is co-terminus with the permission granted to an employee,” it said.

The work from home rules are applicable to Special Economic Zones, which are areas subject to a set of different economic regulations than other regions within India. This is done to attract foreign direct investments. There are eight functional SEZs in India at the moment including — Santa Cruz (Maharashtra), Cochin (Kerala), Kandla and Surat (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Falta (West Bengal) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh).

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