New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday directed offices in the capital – government and private – to have a maximum of 50% of their employees working at workplaces and the rest to work from home from Thursday in a bid to reduce pollution in the city.Delhi Labor Minister Kapil Mishra said, “The companies must strictly enforce work-from-home norms and also motivate their employees to carpool.” Later in the day, the Labor Ministry issued a notice reiterating the restrictions and adding that “failure to comply is punishable under sections 15 and 16 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and other applicable laws.”The WFH provisions do not apply to essential services, including hospitals and health services, fire services, prison administration, public transport, electricity services, environmental protection authorities, forest department and Delhi Jal Board.The government also announced that it will pay $10,000 to every registered construction worker in Delhi as construction work was halted for 16 days due to Grap regulations to curb air pollution.In response to deteriorating air quality, the Delhi government has introduced Grap 4, the highest and most stringent level of Delhi-NCR’s pollution control plan. Under Grap 4, construction and demolition work has been banned, diesel trucks that do not carry essential goods have been banned from entering Delhi and the government has announced that it will not provide fuel to non-PUC compliant vehicles. Mishra said that apart from making 50% WFH mandatory, offices will also be encouraged to adopt flexible working hours.During the Grap restrictions last month, construction activities in Delhi were halted, negatively impacting the livelihoods of daily wage laborers in the construction sector. “Taking these concerns into account, the Delhi government has decided to compensate the workers for the loss of income caused due to the cessation of construction work. Accordingly, financial assistance of 10,000 will be provided to registered and verified construction workers,” Kapil Mishra said. As of December 17, Delhi has 2,57,244 workers registered with the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare. Registrations are an ongoing process.
