Corporates tighten the noose against harassment

“There were many women in his team. He was always respectful and well-behaved. His personal assistants were women. He is not a guy to force himself on a woman. He mostly tried to attract them through his intellectual ability,” said a former iGate employee. Phaneesh Murthy, the business icon who was expected to succeed Nandan Nilekani as the CEO of the leading software services exporter. But he was shown the way out, post a sexual harassment case lodged against him. The investigation revealed that he had not disclosed a relationship with a subordinate employee.

In yet another case of sexual assault, Tehelka Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal had been accused of molesting a female journalist inside an elevator of a five-star hotel in Goa.

Hyderabad too had witnessed a similar case where two employees of a leading English daily had registered a case of sexual harassment under section 354 of the IPC. However, the news was not made public. The recent times have witnessed many cases of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances at work places, including the recent cases involving a now retired Supreme Court judge and senior lawyers.

Corporates in Hyderabad are taking every possible care to build a defense system against sexual harassment. Wipro has a committee for preventing sexual harassment. The committee keeps the details confidential and encourages female employees to voice their opinion through emails or letters. The investigation involves a scrutiny and on camera conversations, taped conversations, CCTV footage, and emails as proof to prove the guilt. Similarly, Essar has had a committee in place for the past six years. Philips India solved two cases without even making the case public.

Says Namratha of Unilever, “We have a global ethics hotline, through a third party to encourage reporting of matters with anonymity. We have CoBP drop boxes where any individual can drop the complaint.”

The public reaction to the Delhi rape case seems to have jolted the Indian political class out of its usual inertia and the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 has finally become law after years in limbo.

Any company sourcing from India now needs to consider the implications, as the law applies to all workplaces.

In business, being right 95% of the time is in fact an achievement. But, in the world of ethics, the remaining 5% will pull one down. “It’s easier to be ethical 100% of the time than 98% of the time,” says the book ‘How will you measure your life’. This statement is from Phaneesh Murthy of iGate. Phaneesh had to shell out Rs 30 million to come clean out of his first controversy.

This money is an eye opener and companies are in a rush to buy insurance covers against sexual harassment liabilities. Big companies like Dr Reddy s laboratories and Bharati Airtel are busy negotiating with insurance companies to buy policies that will cover the companies against law suits that may seek millions of dollars citing sexual harassment at work place.

Employment practices liability insurance, which includes coverage for sexual harassment claims, has been around ever since the early ’90s. But a recent increase in employment lawsuits, and increased media attention to the hefty judgments in high-profile cases, has generated more employer interest. Although employment-related claims can be filed against firms of any size, risk management can be especially critical for small and mid-size companies. Now, the grieved individual can file cases and claim compensation.