New Delhi, In a major relief for IT companies, BPOs and their employees, the Centre has extended the relaxations of norms for such companies to allow 'work from home' for their staff till December 31, 2020.

The relaxations to the norms brought about for the convenience and safety of the IT sector employees amid the pandemic were due to end on July 31.

"DoT has further extended the relaxations in the Terms and Conditions for Other Service Providers (OSPs) upto 31st December 2020 to facilitate work from home in view of the ongoing concern due to #COVID19," said a tweet by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The government had first relaxed the norms till April and later extended it till July 31.

The industry has hailed the decision.

Thanking Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and DoT Secretary Anshu Prakash, Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh tweeted that the move will ensure business continuity and employee safety along with increase of the industry's talent pool in tier-II and tier-III cities.

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji tweeted: "Thank you to the government for their tremendous support on the new ways of working from day 1. This has helped tremendously in further elevating our standing and responsiveness globally."