Sexual harassment at work: greater action needed

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) recently relaxed its rules to allow the state’s factories to employ women at night – providing a host of measures to protect them from all forms of harassment and violence are in place.

Announcing the new directive on 28 May, additional chief secretary Suresh Chandra of the Labour and Employment Department of the UP government said women can now work between 7pm and 6am in factories, providing they give written consent to their employer.

If a woman agrees to work between 7pm-6am, the employer must provide free transportation to and from her home and the factory, to protect her from sexual and other forms of violence and harassment.

Photograph: iStock, credit-SoumenNath

The new regulation, which amends the Factories Act 1948 and applies to both the government and private sectors in UP, also requires factory employers to “take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment” at work.

This includes establishing and maintaining a mechanism for factory workers to complain about sexual harassment, in line with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2017. The factory operator must also send an “express” report to the local inspector of factories and local police station if an “untoward incident” of sexual harassment occurs at work involving a night shift worker.

If female staff are working in a factory between 7pm-6am, there must be a minimum of four present at all times in the premises or in a particular department, including the offices of a factory. The employer must also provide “sufficient” supervision of female night shift workers.

The directive also requires the factory operator to ensure toilets, washrooms, changing rooms, drinking water facilities and lights are provided in the workplace, and female night workers must be provided with food.

The UP government says the order makes clear that women cannot be forced to work between 7pm-6am, and if a female factory worker refuses to work these hours, the employer cannot terminate their employment.

The order adds that female factory workers must be “made aware of their rights in particular by prominently displaying the guideline as may be required”.

If a factory owner intends to employ female night workers, they must first notify the local inspector of factories in writing so the application can be verified.

Factory owners must also send a monthly report to the factory inspector giving details of women workers engaged in night shifts.

The UP government says the factory inspectors will “enforce” the safe working conditions of female night staff through inspections. The order also warns that permission to allow female workers to work nights in a factory will be “cancelled automatically on violation of any conditions” of the regulation.

The directive was announced just days after the UP government unveiled the state budget, with a particular focus on infrastructure, creation of jobs, the welfare of farmers, health and safety, and the empowerment of women.

Presenting the first budget of the Yogi Adityanath government in its second term in the Legislative Assembly in May, UP finance minister Suresh Khanna proposed a provision of Rs 20 crore for the safety and empowerment of women and skills development under the Mission Shakti programme in the micro and small-scale industry sectors.

Delhi businesses must provide taxis for female night shift workers
Meanwhile, in Delhi, after the horrific gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in December 2012, the Delhi Police made it mandatory for private companies to safely transport female night workers to their homes.

“The order, issued under Section 144 of the CrPC, which defines night hours (from 8pm to 7am), also makes it compulsory for employers to ensure that a security guard accompanies the woman employee to her residence,” a Delhi Police spokesperson told the India Today newspaper.

The guard has to ensure her safe arrival if the office vehicle cannot drop her right outside her house, he said.

“If the employer is violating the order, he or she is liable to be punished under Section 188 (disobedience of an official order) of IPC which entails imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of Rs 1,000 or both,” the spokesperson told India Today.

“Delhi Police visit workplaces from time to time to ensure women’s safety,” the spokesperson added. Supreme Court advocate Nipun Saxena also said that the law requires the employer to take all due reasonable care to ensure that the employee is safely escorted to her home, according to India Today.

“The employer shall be liable if on account of negligence there is any mishap with the woman,” he said.

Poor compliance with transport rules for female night workers
If a female factory employee works beyond 7pm, the Factories Act of 1948 requires her employer to provide a taxi with either a male associate or a security guard to drop the worker to their home. However, many campaigners say there is poor employer compliance with the duty.

In 13 Indian states, women can only work night shifts if their employer complies with a set of conditions set out under the individual state’s Shops and Establishments Act.

These conditions are designed to ensure the safety, health, and “adequate protection of privacy, dignity and honour” of the female employees.

For example, there are various transport-related conditions that the affected employers and providers of the transport services must comply with.

For instance, security guards at the office must ensure the woman has boarded the vehicle, and the driver must ensure the woman has entered her home before leaving for the next destination.

The supervisory office of the company will design the route for collecting the female employee from the office and dropping her home. The routes have to be designed in such a way that no woman is picked up first or dropped off last.

States like Karnataka and Telangana also require the movement of these vehicles to be tracked by the control room or travel desk of the company.

In Haryana, firms have to maintain a boarding register and a movement register. The boarding register records the date of any female night shift worker’s journey, the model, manufacturer and registration number of the vehicle, the name, address and phone number of the driver, and the time the female employees are collected from the workplace.

Minimum number of female night workers
“Some states require that women can only work at night if they are accompanied by a minimum number of female employees,” explain Sargun Kaur and Sirjan Kaur of Trayas, a research organisation that works with state governments and others to improve regulation for the benefit of people, businesses, and communities.

“In Andhra Pradesh, a female employee can work at night only if she is accompanied by four other female employees. In Kerala, a female employee can work at night only in groups of five, of which two employees should be women,” they add.

Experts argue that all businesses should develop and implement an internal code to ensure the security of female employees and take measures to ensure female staff can carry out their jobs in a secure atmosphere.

They add that state governments should make it mandatory for companies that employ women to work at night in all industries to install Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in vehicles carrying women to and from their homes so their location can be tracked for safety purposes.

Sexual harassment at tea plantations
Meanwhile, a recent study by Oxfam India into the working conditions of workers at tea plantations concluded that the extremely hierarchical nature of their jobs, the migrant status of workers and the lack of other job opportunities for female tea pickers contribute to the normalisation of workplace violence against women in the industry.

Facilities such as canteens and toilets – which are generally available in factories where there is a predominantly male workforce – are lacking in the tea fields. As most of the “sardars” (supervisors) are male, female tea pickers often seek to take toilet and rest breaks far from where their colleagues are working. This makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse or attacks by wild animals, says the Oxfam report.

Writing in the Indian Express newspaper, Ranjana Das, who leads the informal sector work at Oxfam India: “The quest for inclusive growth in the post-pandemic should catalyse endeavours to make workplaces in the informal sector safe for women.

“Some measures that can be implemented immediately include sensitising informal sector workers on gender-based violence and informing them in simple language about the laws that deal with such violence; employers must ensure that complaints committees are functional; sensitising local labour contractors on how to deal with cases of sexual harassment at workplaces.

“These bare minimum measures can be implemented with technical support from local women’s rights organisations. The government should also step in to improve the implementation of existing laws and increase budgetary provisions for workplace safety.”

The forthcoming new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020 will allow women to work nights between 7pm-6am, providing they formally give their consent. This should mean women will be able to avoid working certain hours if it does not suit their needs and preferences.

The OSH Code will amalgamate 13 existing labour laws. It will apply to factories with at least 20 workers if the manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power and 40 workers if the manufacturing process is undertaken without power.

Under the code, employers will be required to ensure the workplace is free from hazards that could cause injury or occupational disease to employees. They will also have to provide free annual health examinations or tests to certain classes of employees.

According to Sumeet Doshi, the country manager for India at information technology company the Ultimate Kronos Group: “While some of these measures are basic factors in ensuring the safety and comfort of women in the workplace, the new labour codes have a number of provisions that can allow organisations to take more interventions to support their women employees.”