Paid leave to WFH - India Inc nudges employees to vote

A staggering 960 million Indians above 18 years are eligible to vote in the seven-phase national elections starting 19 April; and India's corporate citizens are pulling out all stops to make sure maximum employees join the great democratic exercise.

From IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services to e-commerce giants like Amazon, from consultancies such as KPMG to manpower biggies like Quess Corp, India Inc. is offering holidays, remote work, and other flexibilities for employees to have a say in who governs them. Some are letting their employees travel to cities where they are enrolled as voters, allowing them to work remotely for a few days.

HCL Technologies, Bigbasket, Tata Sons, and Panasonic India, among others, have started alerting their employees on their leave, remote work and travel policies this election.

"All employees are given special leave to vote as per their office base locations. Colleagues who need to travel from their official base location to their voting constituency can also avail special leave after informing their performance manager," said consulting and audit firm KPMG India in an email response to Mint.

A senior executive of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata group firms, said the firm will give a day off to its employees to cast their votes. Tata Sons' employees are based in Mumbai.

IT service companies with a large number of employees across the country have announced off days for polling. Noida-based HCL Technologies, with 2,24,756 employees, said it will offer leave. Similarly, a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) executive said India's largest IT firm will offer the day off to employees working in locations where voting is to be held. While Mint could not independently ascertain whether TCS employees will be officially allowed to travel to their respective constituencies to vote, it has learnt that some team managers might allow their employees to travel.

As of the quarter ended 31 December 2023, India's largest IT company employed 6,03,305 people. TCS did not respond to Mint's queries.

E-commerce giant Amazon said will provide its employees and associates paid holiday for voting. Flipkart is encouraging its employees to exercise their franchise. It said its office will be shut on polling day in Bengaluru, and all employees will be given paid leave to vote, including those who may travel to their respective constituency to cast their votes.

Corporate hubs such as Bengaluru, Gurugram, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai may see employees head to their respective hometowns to cast their votes. In Mumbai, which goes to the polls on 20 May, BSE and National Stock Exchange will remain closed.

SaaS automotive retail startup Tekion has declared holidays for Bengaluru and Chennai offices on the respective election dates, and is encouraging its employees to travel to their hometowns where they are listed as voters for the polling day.

HSBC provides three days' off in a year as a part of its election leave quota and, employees can also choose to work half day on such occasions, a employee said. Diversified tech firm Panasonic India will offer employees the option of travelling to vote.

Recruitment firms say remote work will be an option for their employees. To avail of this option, information about election dates in each phase and state, and local holiday for voting must be made available. Further, employees belonging to other states can travel and vote while working remotely, said Lohit Bhatia, president of workforce management at business services provider Quess Corp.

Some firms, however, are awaiting state government circulars regarding holidays and will announce the mandates later. "We are guided by the Shops and Establishments Act and, hence, need to look at the government orders and then announce the leaves for those days," said the HR head of a diversified business house.