Leading BPOs are taking up the verdict with the IT industry’s apex body NASSCOM which in turn will take it up with Karnataka government where the crime took place.
BANGALORE: The Indian BPO industry is shocked by Thursday’s Supreme Court directive allowing criminal proceedings against former managing director of Hewlett-Packard’s BPO branch Som Mittal in the rape and murder case of an employee. Mittal is now the chairman of NASSCOM.
Leading BPOs are taking up the verdict with the IT industry’s apex body NASSCOM which in turn will take it up with Karnataka government where the crime took place.
“We are perturbed by the verdict. An individual can’t be held responsible for the safety of so many employees. It is the job of the government and the police,” the CEO of Infosys BPO Ltd Amitabh Chaudhry told DNA in Bangalore.
Pratibha Srikanta Murthy, an employee of HP’s BPO arm, was raped and murdered by an off-duty driver Shivakumar while transporting her to office in Bangalore in the wee hours on December 13, 2005.
NASSCOM refused to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling. Mittal had challenged the dismissal of his petition by the Karnataka high court against in the case. His petition sought the scrapping of a case registered by the state government alleging that HP had violated the provisions of the Karnataka shops and commercial establishments’ act 1961 that holds the employer responsible for any untoward incident happening to the employee on duty.
Welcoming SC’s verdict, the general secretary of UNITES Professionals, an informal union of the IT/ITES employees, Kartik Shekhar, said, “This will make companies more careful. It will ensure protection of the employees on the graveyard shift. This is a lesson for the others to learn.”
Pratibha’s case had shocked the industry and forced companies to tighten security for employees. Some tech firms had even cancelled the cab services and hired busses so that employees travelled in groups. Some also made it mandatory that a security guard or a male colleague always accompanies a woman employee.
The police, while increasing patrolling on certain roads and checks on cab drivers, also told companies that the vehicles that ferried employees should have clear (not darkened) windows.
Predictably, the order brought some solace to the victim’s family. “This is the best thing to happen.
The companies should learn to take care of their employees,” said Pratibha’s husband Pawan Shetty. “The order is the right thing to happen. It ensures that the IT/ITES companies take responsibility of their employees, especially women on duty. They cannot say that they outsourced the safety of their employees. I hope the case in Bangalore too reaches a logical end and justice is done.”
k_bhargavi@dnaindia.net
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