All Khaitan & Co offices have opened their doors again today to allow fee-earners and staff - purely on a voluntary basis - to physically return to work.
The firm’s Mumbai office would run with a maximum attendance of 10% until the end of this month, in accordance with local authorities’ guidelines, while Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata offices would run at a maximum capacity of 25%.
It is understood that in Mumbai around 10 staff turned up today in the morning until late afternoon.
The primary recommendation from the firm remained to continue working from home if possible, without any pressure on anyone to turn up to the offices, at least until the end of June.
Khaitan’s executive director for HR, Amar Sinhji, confirmed that the offices were reopening in stages, commenting: “We have continued, uninterrupted, to serve our clients since the first lockdown.
“There has been no disruption in our service levels or internal work processes as we transited seamlessly to a 100 WfH model. Now with the phased lifting of the lockdown, we are fully geared to head back to office, as per Govt directions in this regard.
“Our ‘Mission Begin Again’ will of course keep our members health and safety as our first priority and hence physical attendance in office will be purely voluntary until end June. We have all health & safety protocols in place, including the maintenance of social distancing within our offices.”
Khaitan had closed its offices on 17 March 2020, with most other big law firms, even before the official government order to close workplaces.
On 10 May, Khaitan had begun preparing for the eventual opening of offices at some point in future, though at that point no date was specified (nor officially notified and permitted by governments).
In particular, Khaitan had notified staff that following the government’s home ministry then guidelines, it was making installation of the government’s Aarogya Setu contact tracing app mandatory for all its staff.
All staff had been requested to confirm they had installed the app on their phones via an online form.
After a variety of criticism, ranging from privacy to transparency to technological compatibility with users’ phones, the home ministry had stepped back from its initial advice of making the app mandatory and on 30 May instead recommended that employers should ensure that staff install the app on a “best effort basis”.
Comments
Now you want to change that for the following: risk to lives of people, can't keep ACs on, so the place is an oven, increased costs, having to disinfect the whole place each night, let somebody sneeze thanks to our pollution and then check all lawyers for COVID... and I am still waiting to see which deal of yours got done better because lawyers carried their laptops from one desk at home to another at office.
Shows the only time a law firm will disregard huge cost savings is when that also means lawyers don't have to turn up to work.
And voluntary basis, my sun-kissed tushie. The volition is going to be at the discretion of the partners. And this is the same firm where despite people having been in contact with relatives from countries with major COVID issues upon their return, being slyly told that they shouldn't be saying that, etc
"Now with the phased lifting of the lockdown, we are fully geared to head back to office, as per Govt directions in this regard."This is the worst part of the article. Every single government regulation or direction (including the MHA Unlock #1) clearly states that wherever possible, employer should permit Work from Home. Which directions are you following or reading? Going forward, do consider reading suchh directions before using them as excuse to implement your ill advised actions.
Law firms (especially on the transactional side) are one of the few employers for whom WFH is as productive (if not more) as WFO (by their own admission).
I hope they realise that calling their employees and "partners" to the office will not generate work. If anything, it is will further hamper their productivity for numerous easily fathomable reasons.
@kian CAM is also opening its office with 25% capacity. And firms like IndusLaw started functioning 20 days back.
I think despite this if people are not thankful, too bad. Run your own shop. It's important to give credit where due.
(1) he (and you) are referring to only part of an email for your convenience (and conveniently ignoring all the bells and whistles put in place in that email); and
(2) I am reporting from the ground!
So, dear troll, no misinformation please.
On an a related note for KCO, generally spoke to few associates in various law firms. None of them wanted to "voluntarily" go to office. Apparently, KCO associates/partners have a different viewpoint on being physically present in the office or perhaps they were never consulted.