Telecom industry wary of rushing staff back to office amid continuing rise in Covid cases

Telecom industry players are in no hurry to bring back their employees to offices, with the likes of Bharti Airtel reopening its offices but capping its workforce inside company premises at 33% on safety grounds even as Covid19 cases continue to mount across India.

Bharti Airtel has reopened all its offices though it’s open to staff working from home on health and safety grounds and is also ensuring strict social distancing protocols inside office premises. Reliance Jio though is likely to maintain around 15% staff at major circle offices, and take a call on bringing back more people, post-June 8.

“Starting this week, Airtel has opened all its offices as per guidelines from relevant authorities, (though) employee strength across all offices is strictly capped to maintain social distancing,” a company spokesperson told ET. He added that “coming to office is voluntary and all Airtel employees could continue to work from home, even while stringent sanitation measures have been put in place across the telco’s offices.