Work from home (WFH) is not legal in India. Here is how it impacts all of us.

If this surprises you, then you may also think now what does it mean for employees like you and me?

Here are some ways they are impacting us in ways that we may not be even aware of-?

PR driven "Permanent" work from home announcements

Not a week goes by without reading an article or opinion piece from a CEO or startup proclaiming how they were now a ?? pc remote company!

While these announcements make the company appear employee friendly, such announcement are not only practically untenable policies but also come with a near zero labour or legal cover for the employee who falls prey to such a PR driven messaging.

Increasingly, such positive announcements are being used to cover for negative news like Layoffs . Every time I see a startup announce loudly that they are allowing for their employees to "permanent" work from home or more ludicrously "Anywhere in the world" I get a little more anxious thinking of all that is not being shared.

In the fine print, you will read conditions that such privileges are given to only a small section of employees, and talking to actual employees in the company where such policies are announced will reveal that there is a big gap between what is projected on media vs what actually the employee experiences.

A never ending anxiety on when you will be called back to the office

Even if any Indian company claims that they allow "Permanent work from home" the employment contract with the employee will still read that employee must work out of a certain base location in the country where the company has its registered office.

Even in the USA, where companies preach their own philosophies of "Remote work" or "Hybrid work", does not have a legal right that allows employee to work from home.Which means it's up to the discretion of the employer to "allow" you to work from home or the office.

An employee who joins a company based on the assumption that they are allowed to work anywhere in the country has to live in a constant state of anxiety when they will be called back to the office. Such a situation makes it almost impossible for employees with children, elder care duties to make long-term commitments in the city of their choice.

As noted earlier, our labour laws work on the assumption that employees work at a certain fixed location. So in case of a conflict or employee grievance, if the employee is working from home, then the employer can actually force the employee to return to base location for resolution or deny a closure till the employee physically reports back to the "base location"

Increase in reported cases of workplace incivility & harassment

Indian companies showed a steep increase in the reported cases of workplace harassment in the first 6 months of 2022 that is now on course to eclipse the whole of 2021.

Unsurprisingly, this is the very period when the greater majority of Indian companies were working from home or were trying to transition back to the office.

With companies having policies, training in place for the manner & behaviour of working in an office for a long time now, everyone is still trying to figure out on how the same translates while working from home.

Social media operators normalized bringing out the worst of human emotions online and even incited them to drive more engagement on their platforms. Working on zoom for years now without the protection underlying legal structure seems to have passed on this incivility into the workplace conversations while working remotely.

And we are only talking about reported cases. The real impact of working from home will only be known as more data driven research is carried out in the years to follow.

Indian Insurance is not ready to cover ailments arising from remote working

At an office your workday is limited, at least on paper between 9-6pm. Have you noticed while working from home there is not "log-out" time?

Even when you take breaks, you are moving from one screen to another.

Couple this with the isolation of working from home on your own and you will look at the issues that study after study has confirmed again and again from the past few years now

Despite all the misgivings we have about working from an office, human beings are social animals and we have not evolved to sit on our own for extended periods of time the way working from home for extended periods of time.

And this brings me to the next point- We had experienced how the Indian Insurance Industry was not ready to cover Covid19 and even today your typical corporate cover is not designed nor seems to be interested to support employees for many of the physical and mental issues that are caused from working from home.

Differential pay policies & obscure tax implications for employee

Most remote working come with Differential pay practices. This means that employees who were paid the same for the same job will be paid much lesser based on the location which they choose to work from.

For example- If you work for a company in Bengaluru and decide to work permanently from a tier 2 or 3 city anywhere in India, your pay will most likely take a cut as per the "Cost of living" of the city you choose to be in.

Although your employment contract does not change and regardless of which city you stay in India, your tax slabs remain the same.

Even some of the tax saving flexible benefit plans and reimbursements technically become unusable because even they are geared towards providing support to the employee who travels to an physical office.

The issue is further aggravated when an employee works in a location outside of the country, glamorised by the allure of "staycations" in an exotic location. Now the company is not just inviting tax situation where there may come a time where employee may have to may multiple taxes but is also a risk for the company, depending on where the employee works from can lead to a risk of visa violations too.

Will WFH become legally acknowledged and protected in India?

While there are murmurs of the upcoming unified labour codes to address the issue and provide some framework for employees who work remotely or from home till date there is nothing concrete.

Furthermore, this is the second year that the revised and reformed codes have been delayed and there is no sign that it may come live in the next year too in Bengaluru considering it will soon be an election year for Karnataka and major reform this close to the election will be shunned.

Until then, know that while remote working and working from home have several advantages and remain as a growing need for employees to make a choice of their next employer. Just know that it is a grey area that has real consequences on your employment.