Mumbai: 4 firms show the way by following CR’s staggered timings suggestion

The number of daily railway commuters has been increasing. File Pic/Ashish Raje

Four more big firms - the General Insurance Corporation of India, GlaxoSmithKline, Gammon India and Godrej - have pledged support to Central Railway (CR) Mumbai's appeal to implement staggered work timings. On December 9, mid-day reported about six organisations that vowed to implement the policy.

A B Desai from Gammon India said his organisation had a flexitime policy and employees chose their time depending on the traffic situation. "In our opinion, it's better if the government issues an ordinance segregating timings for different sectors. There can be different time slots for each one starting from 7 am and ending at 9 pm," he said.

N Ramaswamy, chairman and managing director of General Insurance Corporation of India, said, "We appreciate your concern and the initiative taken by your office regarding the staggered office timings. At GIC Re, we already have staggered office timings in place for our employees daily between 9.30 am to 11 am and depending on their entry time, their out time is arrived at on completion of the required working hour."

Ajay Nadkarni, vice-president, administration, real estate and company secretary with GlaxoSmithKline, said, "We have already implemented various measures, including a two-hour window in the morning during which employees can come to work. They have the flexibility to plan their commute to avoid the peak-hour rush. We also have a policy of allowing employees to work from home once a week, so the majority of them travel only four days a week. Moreover, they have an option to work from home for more than a day (in a week), if travelling is not conducive due to any reason."

He added, "We also have a set of 'Life-Saving Rules', which essentially are 12 basic rules that we follow to ensure that we act safely and reach home safely every single day. We propagate these regularly and encourage employees to use them, not just during business hours, but also in their personal lives."

Anik G Verma, executive director and CEO, Godrej & Boyce, said his organisation operates in various shifts and work timings are spread throughout the day. "We have a flexitime policy and employees in offices can come any time provided they are present between the core hours of 10.20 am to 3.10 pm and complete the required working hours as per the daily and weekly flexitime policy. Around 50 per cent of our employees commute to office in non-peak hours and another 23 per cent who follow the flexitime schedule can plan their commute during non-peak hours based on the business requirements and their convenience."

Debate revived: CR in October 2023 had revived the city's debate of staggered office timings by formally announcing the implementation of much-awaited flexible working hours for all its employees to avoid rush hour crowds so that railway employees did not end up jostling with commuters to reach offices in time. In November, it sent out letters to over 350 organisations, offices and business chambers with the appeal to start staggering their office timings.

"Though 150 additional suburban services have been added during peak hour in the past seven years, there is no scope for further increase in services. The daily number of commuters is increasing day by day. Staggering office timings is the need of the hour to kill the concept of rush hour," Divisional Railway Manager Rajnish Kumar Goyal told mid-day.

350
No of organisations CR appealed to