A complaint invoking the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 (POSH Act) and email exchanges between the victim and senior employees, reveal patterns of harassment and derogatory, caste-based comments.
On June 3, a Dalit man working in the Bengaluru office of a retail chain died by suicide. Shortly before his death, the man had filed a police complaint against three colleagues over casteist remarks against him. A complaint invoking the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 (POSH Act) and email exchanges between the victim and senior employees of Lifestyle International Private Limited sent months before the death reveal a pattern of workplace harassment and derogatory, caste-based comments.
Following the death, a First Information Report was registered against three of his colleagues for allegedly abetting his suicide. The accused – deputy general manager in marketing Malathy SB; vice president in human resources Kumar Suraj; and assistant manager in marketing Nitish Kumar – approached the Karnataka High Court to halt the legal proceedings against them, but their petition was rejected by Justice M Nagaprasanna on July 28.
The victim, who was a Visual Merchandiser at Lifestyle International, was an alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Bengaluru. He first worked at Lifestyle, a retail brand that is part of the Dubai-based conglomerate the Landmark Group from 2016 to 2018 and later returned to the company in 2022. On February 17, 2023, after an allegedly disturbing meeting where his team lead “[screamed] without even listening to [my] point,” the victim tendered his resignation. In his resignation email, he noted, “I am repeatedly misrepresented, shunned, and cancelled.” The email also detailed the various forms of harassment he had to face at the hands of his seniors. “I can work on any feedback, but casting a doubt on my sexuality as a joke is not funny at all,” the email said.
Harassment citing victim’s sexuality
On March 2, he filed a complaint with the company’s Internal Complaints Committee constituted under the POSH Act. In it too, he stated that his colleagues’ interactions with him were hostile, and that his sexuality was repeatedly questioned in demeaning ways. He also stated that he was mocked for interacting with another person in office, who he later found was a queer person.
The complaint included allegations that his team lead Malathy harassed him over his sexuality. "My team lead cracked jokes on my sexuality, the joke which started with one question 'Who brings food for you? Acha koi special hogi... ya fir koi special hoga, [There must be a special woman, or is it a special man?] who is this special someone?'" he stated.
The victim's interactions with a queer colleague were also allegedly made a subject of ridicule. “I was earlier taunted whenever I spoke to a colleague … These were mostly sarcastic comments and questions. There was always a joke around whenever I came from having a discussion with him. Lately, I came to know that the colleague is from the LGBT community,” the complaint said.
According to an email he sent to his seniors on May 8, Lifestyle International failed to take any action against the accused based on the POSH complaint filed on March 2.
Two weeks later, on March 16, the victim’s resignation was accepted. He then expressed his wish to withdraw his resignation. The company, however, did not give him the same position as before — it is unclear at this point if he was demoted. When he refused to accept it, the company’s human resources department initiated an internal process to evaluate his eligibility for a position in a team based out of New Delhi. The victim participated in two rounds of interviews, with the second one conducted by the accused Kumar Suraj on May 19. A discussion on the placement was scheduled for May 22, which the victim did not attend.
On May 8, two months after the POSH complaint, the victim sent an email to other seniors in the company, expressing his frustration with the lack of action. “Forced by the prevailing critical situation that could have turned my life into disastrous form, I reached out to the POSH committee on March 2. Till date, my problems and complaints have not been addressed, apart from a few inquiries. The combined ignorance has brought me here to this mental health level,” he wrote.
In the email, he also recounted a particularly uncomfortable interaction during a meeting held on February 20, attended by Malathy and two others. He wrote, "I was asked to open up about my sexuality and [told that] if I am gay, I should feel proud and celebrate it. This statement made me more hopeless."
“I believe the Indian Constitution and Law of this land give all of us the right to live with dignity and without any discrimination at the workplace,” he noted.
Victim subjected to casteist abuse
The victim, who hailed from the Chamar community (Scheduled Caste), also detailed his experiences facing casteist comments. "I had never imagined and expected … that I would have to face caste-based discrimination at a place that claims to station well-educated staff with all moral and ethical responsibilities." He said, "Calling me neech (casteist slur used to denote that a person is from a lowered caste) and using other derogatory remarks against me certainly does not belong to a reputed institution and it has been at its peak recently,” read the email.
Based on the emails, Malathy was issued a show-cause notice and subsequently reprimanded. Malathy contested the decision and sought a review by the Internal Committee, which was pending consideration at the time of the victim’s death. He died by suicide on June 3.
Court finds prima facie incriminating material
During the legal proceedings in the High Court, the accused argued that there was no instigation, goading, or proximity to the victim's death as required for an offense under section 306 (Abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. Dismissing this claim, the court noted the presence of prima facie incriminating material to support the allegations. “If the accused by their alleged acts have played an active role in tarnishing or destroying the self-esteem of a … person or even their self-respect, [they] would definitely become guilty of commission of abetment to suicide; if the accused have kept on irritating or annoying the deceased by words or deeds, provoking them and driving them to the wall, [those] would also become circumstances that would be ingredients of abetment, all prima facie,” the court said.
"employee" - Google News
August 19, 2023 at 01:38PM
https://ift.tt/BxUWvRb
Bengaluru Lifestyle employee who died by suicide complained many times about harassment - The News Minute
"employee" - Google News
https://ift.tt/MRN7cEW
https://ift.tt/OMeu5Z1
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Bengaluru Lifestyle employee who died by suicide complained many times about harassment - The News Minute"
Post a Comment