NEW DELHI, Aug 6:
Falling in line after repeated diktats from the Government and regulators, most of the top listed companies have begun making public some basic data of sexual harassment at workplace and the disclosed numbers show a disturbing uptick.
At the same time, most of these companies assert that a large number of such complaints were effectively resolved, including through ‘conciliation’ or with ‘required disciplinary action’, and the pendency was very low to nil at the end of last fiscal.
Under the regulations framed by Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India), all listed companies need to disclose the total number of complaints relating to sexual harassment and the pendency data at the end of a financial year in their annual reports.
Besides, the Ministry of Women and Child Development also requires the companies to give details about such cases under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
The Ministry recently also launched an online portal to enable women employees of the central government to file complaints relating to sexual harassment at workplace while the Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said its ambit would be widened going forward to include the private sector as well.
While the proposed measure is expected to further improve the reporting of such cases, the disclosures made in the annual reports by the top listed blue-chips in India, forming part of the benchmark stock market index Sensex, show that the number of reported complaints rose at most companies.
The number of reported complaints are mostly higher at IT companies, as compared to the firms from other sectors.
IT blue-chip Infosys said it has institutionalised the anti sexual harassment initiative framework, through which it addresses complaints of sexual harassment at workplace.
“Our global policy assures discretion and guarantees non-retaliation to complainants. We follow a gender neutral approach in handling complaints of sexual harassment and we are compliant with the law of the land wherever we operate.
“We have also constituted an internal committee in all locations across India to consider and address sexual harassment complaints in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013,” Infosys said.
Disclosing details of the complaints received under this law, Infosys said the total number of cases filed in the fiscal 2016-17 was 88 (up from 62 in the previous year).
While five cases were disposed of by conciliation (as against one in previous fiscal), 72 were disposed of by disciplinary actions (up from 61). Infosys further said 11 cases evaluated by the internal committee were reported in March 2017 and the investigation process was underway as on March 31. Wipro also said it has a policy and framework for employees to report sexual harassment cases at workplace and our process ensures complete anonymity and confidentiality of information. (PTI)
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