Bengaluru, March 16 Global software major Wipro is selectively offering work from home option to employees, depending on the job role allowing such operation in the light of prevailing COVID-19 scenario, an official said on Monday.
"Given the evolving situation, beginning Monday, March 16, we have advised our employees to work from home wherever feasible and if their role allows them to do so," told a Wipro spokesperson to .
The company said its offices will remain open and it global Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) and crisis management teams will continue to assess the coronavirus situation.
Wipro will review the decision after a week and take a call on the future course of action.
"At Wipro, the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees is of paramount importance and over the past several weeks we have taken a series of preventive measures to protect our employees from the coronavirus outbreak," the company added.
In this tech hub, several companies and startups are allowing employees to work from home in the wake of coronavirus scare.
Gitika Srivastava, founder of Navya, a clinical informatics startup in the city, providing online expert opinions to cancer patients said the threat of COVID-19 is real but the response to mitigate it not entirely clear.
Given the incubation period of 14 days and the fact that the first known case of Coronavirus recently presented in Bangalore, Srivastava said Navya's employees are already working from home.
"We have also asked employees that at the end of the 14 day period, if they are medically certified with a cold or flu to stay home till they recover," she added.
Lingerie retailer Zivame has advised all its corporate employees to work from home with immediate effect to maintain social isolation to combat the spread of coronavirus.
The company has stopped all meetings with external partners and clients for a week and is leveraging technology wherever possible.
Karnataka government has advised IT and biotech companies to allow work from home option to their employees.
( With inputs from IANS )