The ousting of Phaneesh Murthy, once the poster boy of IT sector, has once again brought the issue of sexual harassment to the fore.
Most of the Indian companies follow a zero tolerance policy, and have checks and balances in place to prevent similar incidents.
“We follow a zero tolerance policy, and it will be not only for the CEO, but for anybody who is in a position of power. My board would have been equally swift and equally firm (if such an issue were to occur),” said
Sexual harassment by definition can only happen when a person is in power, and different companies have different methods of dealing with it.
Both Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam encourage employees to complain, speak up or reach out. These kinds of issues don’t happen overnight, and there would be some signs or some way the behaviour could be read, Gurnani said, adding, if people were allowed to speak openly, these kinds of issues could be minimised.
At D-Link (India), which employs about 165 personnel, no untoward incident has happened so far, since the company started nearly two decades ago.
“In case of such an issue, we would take action in accordance with the law of the country,” D-Link (India) Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director C.M. Gaonkar, said, adding non-tolerance would be also the policy for the networking and cloud solutions provider.
LAWS NO DIFFERENT
How different are sexual harassment laws in India?
“The law on sexual harassment in India does not differentiate between sexual harassment in Indian corporate space or anywhere else. The laws are the same, which means that the subject of harassment is treated with the same merit regardless of wherever it occurs,” said Nithianandan Balagopalan, a Mumbai-based lawyer.
However, Indian corporates can build-in several mechanisms to ensure that sexual harassment does not occur or if it occurs, is handled effectively, he said, adding that Indian laws needs drastic changes to keep pace with some of the developed countries of the world, as the current laws are not conducive to victims of sexual harassment.
Outsourcer Firstsource believes it is the company’s responsibility to deter acts of sexual harassment. It has also developed a “strong” anti-sexual harassment policy, and states zero tolerance is important.
“We have an investigating quorum comprising 50 per cent and above of women to probe into such cases. The committee meets with the aggrieved employee, respondent and witnesses, if any. It presents recommendations based on the findings of the investigation and steps are accordingly taken to action the verdict,” said Satish M, Executive Vice-President (HR) at Firstsource Solutions .
The BPO firm conducts education and awareness programmes regularly to outline unacceptable behaviour.