Indian IT companies have given their staff in tsunami-ravaged Japan the option of working from their home or returning to India following fears of radiation exposure.
“We are ready to relocate our Indian employees and their families back to India as well as move our local Japanese employees and their families to safer locations,” said a spokesperson for TCS, which has over two hundred employees in Japan.
Fresh concerns were stirred after another explosion and fire were reported at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 216 km north of Tokyo.
Infosys has said all 250 staffers in Japan (including those on deputation) have been apprised of the situation and are being monitored for safety. “In cases where employees and their families are keen on returning temporarily to safety, we are facilitating their travel,” a company spokesperson said. The number of staffers who have opted to come back could not be ascertained as companies are receiving requests on an ongoing basis.
MindTree has set up a ‘war room' under the leadership of Mr Babuji Abraham, Global Head, People Function. “We have also initiated the process of evacuation of families of MindTree Minds (employees) on Monday and they have been asked to return to India on Tuesday,” said Mr Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO and Managing Director.
Interestingly, some associates of Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions have expressed their willingness to stay on and work from home in Tokyo and Osaka, the company said. Mr Saurabh Govil, Senior Vice-President (HR) of Wipro Technologies, said: “Many of our customers are back in operation and we are using options like working from home and gearing up our offshore support to ensure business continuity to our clients.”
Mr Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Zensar Technologies, said two of its Japanese customers have agreed to be serviced out of the India units. The company has given the go-ahead to its deputed and permanent Indian staff to head back. Cognizant too has moved some of its associates to India and China and they will support customers in the Japanese time zone.
(With inputs from Bangalore, Chennai Bureaus)