Coronavirus: Centre mulling 15-day work from home in a year for its staff

With COVID-19 restricting office-goers to the confines of their houses, the Central government is now mulling a framework for 'Work From Home' (WFH) with a draft suggesting that it could allow such facility for 15 days a year for its officials and staff in the future.

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The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has issued a draft framework for discussion among ministries and departments on WFH, saying it is quite likely that the Central Secretariat will go for "staggered attendance and variable working hours" for the near future to maintain social distancing at the workplace.

The need for a framework arises as the DARPG finds it important to standardise the operating procedure "even in post-lockdown situations" and to ensure safety and security of information while accessing government files and information remotely from home.

At present, all officials above the rank of Deputy Secretary are attending offices while only 33% of officials and staff below this rank are working from home. Those officials working from home are using the e-office and virtual meetings through video conferencing facilities developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), in a "first of its kind of experience" for the government.

Ministries and departments have been asked to respond to the DARPG draft by May 21.

The experience during the past around 50 days where a majority of officers had to work from home appeared to have prompted the DARPG to suggest that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) could provide an option for WFH to eligible officers and staff for 15 days in a year as a matter of policy.

One of the concerns while allowing WFH is about how to deal with classified papers. The DARPG draft cited the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) instructions that disallows handling of classified information through e-office and said the NIC should evaluate the existing security protocol for remote access of such files and propose suitable Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

During virtual meetings, while working from home, officials should adhere to all norms of office environment. Video-conferencing should also be used as far as possible in office environment to maintain social distancing during COVID-19, it said.

On logistic support like providing laptop and desktops, it said ministries could use the inventory of laptops on a rotational basis for the officers who are working from home and needed such logistic support. Officers working from home could also be reimbursed for data usage.

To ensure seamless work, the draft suggested that text messages and emails should be sent to officers to alert them about important files and communication and the NIC should work out such provisions. The ministries should also ensure that important files and circulars are available in e-office so that important documents needed in examining the files are available while working from home.

The officers to whom official laptops are provided should ensure that they do the official work in an official device only while the NIC should ensure that their devices are well protected against malware and malicious websites.

"The officers who are working on their personal computers/laptops shall ensure installing regular updates, running antivirus scans, blocking malicious sites, etc with the help of NIC to ensure the safety of their device against information theft," the draft said adding officers on WFH should also be available on phone as per requirements and directions of their superiors.