Wipro says its employees in Israel accounted for, asked to work from home

Mumbai: IT firm Wipro on Tuesday said it has 80 employees in Israel, all of whom are Israeli nationals and have been accounted for. The tech company has advised its employees there to work from home until further notice and is monitoring their safety.

“Wipro has about 80 employees in Israel, all of whom are Israeli nationals and have been accounted for,” said the company in response to Mint’s queries.

Wipro’s comments come a day after executives in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services firm said they are closely monitoring the safety of its employees in Israel amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

“We are monitoring, and have been in touch with the HR (human resources) officials there. We are helping them with safety measures. There are some employees from India and their families,” a TCS executive said on condition of anonymity.

Wipro said it is “advising all employees in the country to work from home until further notice and follow the safety measures put in place by the local government. We are monitoring the situation closely and are ready to activate business continuity plans should there be a further escalation of events”.

According to reports, 15,000-18,000 Indians, including students, are residing in Israel. The IT firms will also be tracking the safety of their Indian employees who are residing in neighbouring countries as the conflict may spill over to other regions in the Middle East.

So far, Air India has managed to evacuate all its staff, including flight and cabin crews from Tel Aviv with the help of Ethiopian Airlines. Mint had reported that the rising tension in the region also forced all major airlines, including United Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Air France, Ryan Air and Aegean, to reschedule their flights, suspend operations or reduce the number of direct flights.