TCS and its negligence towards Sexual Harassment complaints

TCS and its negligence towards Sexual Harassment complaints

TCS has been habitual in neglecting complaints raised by women and victim shaming. Below are few of the incidents where TCS has punished women employees for raising their voice against incidents of sexual harassment.

Incident 1 (TCS Pune)

A woman who had worked in TCS, Pune for 3 years complained of sexual harassment by a male employee. The woman made a complaint against a colleague to TCS management at a very initial stage, she was shocked to see the management take side with the male employee. Had the TCS management taken any action at the intial complaint, it would have prevented the sexual harassment incident at the later stage.  The woman was made to work night shifts and the harasser had called her near the printer room and sexually harrassed her. The woman submitted chats and voice recordings to TCS Internal Complaints Committee. Instead of investigating the evidence provided, ICC kept doubting the character of the woman employee and suggested the termination of victim.

Such incidents raise serious doubts on the training given by IT companies to the ICC members to deal with Sexual Harassment complaints as per the law.

Further Action – Women employee had given a complaint with police

Source – Pune Mirror

https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pune/crime/32-yr-old-techie-files-plaint-of-harassment/articleshow/68514235.cms

Incident 2 (TCS Bengaluru)

A TCS woman employee was subjected to harassment by a hotel staff member. As a self-defence, the woman had to raise her voice against the hotel employee. When the hotel employee complained against the employee to TCS, TCS immediately resorted to sacking the woman employee. Firstly, this incident had taken place outside of TCS campus and TCS sacking the employee cannot be justified. Secondly, why did TCS not conduct a proper investigation of the incident with the woman. When TCS claims to have a Safety helpline for helping women employees in danger even outside of office premises why did TCS not question the hotel authorities on why she was harassed?

Further Action – Women employee had given a complaint with police

Source – Decan Herald

https://www.deccanherald.com/city/tcs-techie-fired-over-hotel-719484.html

Incident 3 (TCS UK / TCS Chennai)

A woman employee and her immediate supervisor was on deputation in the United Kingdom where the manager had physically confined the women employee in a room from 7 pm until 11 pm forcefully and harassed her in the name of appraisal discussion.  Entire management team and Human Resource Team of Telecom vertical (vertical in which the incident had taken place) had blindly supported the harasser and victimized the woman employee. The woman employee had started afresh in a different vertical in Chennai and performed well, however the harasser continued to stress her through a former colleague forcing the woman employee to file a complaint with ICC. ICC threatened the woman employee, influenced the external committee member, and destroyed some of the material facts. ICC also made the name of the employee public, TCS Chennai disciplinary officer had joined the ICC in threatening the women employee.

Further Action – Women employee had appealed against TCS ICC in Kancheepuram Labour Court

Source – FITE website

TCS has continuously played along the lines of misogyny prevailing in the society by victim shaming, threatening and turning hostile to the complaints raised by  women employees.