IT women want employers to make workplaces safer

Parimala Panchatcharam, President of FITE, said that workplace safety must be ensured by the IT companies. “After the death of Rasila Raju, a fellow IT employee, we want the IT companies to strictly implement the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplaces. Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal Act, 2013. Any IT company with a female employee should have an internal complaint committee, with experts and women members, to act on complaints of sexual harassment filed by women. Recent surveys suggest that 70% of women in the workplace don’t complain about sexual harassment due to the fear of losing their jobs. Moreover, two out of five IT companies don’t have internal complaint committees. We want the State and Central government to ensure that this act is implemented strictly and penal action taken against companies which don’t enforce this. Monitoring committees should be set up to ensure unbiased and transparent functioning of the Internal Complaints Committees at workplaces,” she said. 

The IT companies need to do more to ensure safety of women employees at the workplace. “IT firms should conduct regular workshops on gender discrimination among all employees and deploy women in night shift only with their consent,” added this activist. 

Kanagam, a 22-year-old project engineer at an IT firm in Sholinganallur, said she often must stay back late in office for her project. A resident of Avadi, Kanagam said, “Since our work is quite unpredictable, we often stay back in office till midnight, after which going back home is a huge task. We have asked many times for flexible work hours but without any success. To avail the office cabs, we have to request two hours in advance and if we miss it, there is a longer wait. Many times, I have returned home quite late and had to report to work at 9 am, the next day,” she said. 

Niveditha, another IT employee, said that if work extends late, female employees should be allowed to work from home. “It is quite a hassle and unsafe to travel across the city late in the night. I think project heads to should give women techies an option to work from home, in case the project requires extra work, which will be a safer means,” concluded the 23-year-old.