The Government of India has amended Special Economic Zones Act, 2006 to fix the Work From Home norms for employees in SEZ.
According to amendments, a Unit may permit its employees, including contractual employees, specified in sub-rule (2), to work from home or from any place outside the Special Economic Zone in accordance with this rule 43A (work from home, or WFH) in the special economic zone (SEZ) rule book.
This is also expected to help companies attract and retain talent with flexible work-from-home and hybrid work options.
The following employees of a Unit are covered under sub-rule (1)
(i) Employees of the Information Technology and Information Technology enabled Services Special Economic Zone units.
(ii) Employees, who are temporarily incapacitated.
(iii) Employees, who are travelling.
(iv) Employees, who are working offsite.
According to the amendment, working from home will cover a maximum of 50% of the total employees, including contractual employees, of the unit. The development commissioner may approve a higher number of employees to work from home to be recorded in writing.
The Development Commissioner may, on receipt of an application for extension of the permission, if he is satisfied with the proposal and that the Unit and its employees have complied with this rule, extend the permission for such period, not exceeding one year at a time.
An Unit, where, its employees are working from home or from any place outside the Special Economic Zone on the date of commencement of the Special Economic Zones (Third Amendment) Rules, 2022 shall submit its proposal for permission to the Development Commissioner within ninety days from the date of such commencement.
The work to be performed by the employee permitted to work from home under this rule shall be as per the services approved for the Unit, and the work is related to a project of the Unit.
The Unit shall ensure export revenue of the resultant products or services to be accounted for by the Unit to which the employee is tagged.
The WFH will be approved for a year, and then maybe extended for a year at a time.
The SEZ units will need to keep track of the attendance and even produce these records for the regulator whenever it will be asked to be shown.
A consultant at an IT company said, “The rules do not seem to cover a situation where all employees may be required to work from home, owing to a Covid outbreak, at least the proposed SEZ law should factor this.”
Karan Singh Sodi, regional managing director, JLL India said, “It will allow companies to onboard new talent in the office environment while extending the work-from-home policy for existing talent. This is a welcome move for corporations as we are in the midst of a gradual phase of return to work, especially in the IT and ITeS sector.”
“The last two years have seen pressure on their attrition rates as well as growth in the business, thereby creating new jobs in the IT and ITeS sector”, Karan Singh Sodi added.