DoT relaxes work from home norms for IT-ITeS firms till December 31

The Department of Telecom on Tuesday further extended the relaxations in the Terms and Conditions for Other Service Providers (OSPs) upto December 31, 2020 to facilitate work from home due the Covid-19 pandemic.

These include exemptions in requirement of security deposit and agreement for WFH facility for OSPs (IT and IT-enabled services companies), as well as the need for prior permission for offering the facility.

One of the exemptions include the requirement of authorised Service Providers Provisioned secured VPN (PPVPN). VPN refers to virtual private network.

"During this period, the OSPs are permitted to use secured VPN configured using 'static IP' address by themselves for interconnection between Home agent position and OSP Centre with pre-defined locations," it said.

The document added that in this regard, the agents at home shall be treated as Extended Agent Position of the OSP.

The document said in case of violation of terms of WFH facility by any agent/employee or by the OSP during this period, the OSP shall be subjected to a penalty of up to Rs 5 lakh per WFH location which is in violation.

In addition, the OSP registration is also liable to be cancelled.