According to media reports, IT giant, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) saw a significant increase in sexual harassment complaints in FY 2022-23. There have been 49 cases of sexual harassment filed in FY23.
Reportedly, there have been 36 complaints in FY 2021-22. Additionally, at the end of FY 2022-23 there were eight unresolved cases compared to 16 at the end of FY 2021-22.
However, as per the company’s claims complaints are handled confidentially, and retaliation against those who file complaints is prevented.
India’s second-largest IT services company, Infosys also saw an alarming increase in sexual harassment cases in the FY 2022-23. The numbers jumped to 78 reported cases, a stark rise from the 25 cases reported in the previous fiscal year of 2021-22.
Infosys reported 111 instances of workplace discrimination in 2022-23, compared to 82 instances in the previous year.
Earlier, TCS said women attrition was higher than that of men likely due to the return-to-office policy, the IT giant said in its Integrated Annual Report for 2022-23.
Milind Lakkad, Chief Human Resources Officer at TCS said “Historically, the attrition among women employees — who constitute over 35 percent of our workforce of over 600,000 — has been lower or similar to that of men.”
“..I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalized,” he said.
“This speaks well of the quality of the women candidates in our leadership pool as well as the supportive attitudes of our business leaders in promoting diversity,” he added.
Moreover, the TCS initiative for experienced women professionals re-entering the workforce after a break “Rebegin” have seen nearly 14,000 job applications in FY23.
Additionally, the company has focused on leadership development programs like ‘iExcel’ which are driving change on this front. The annual report said the flagship executive leadership development program for women has completed 22 editions and 1,450 women leaders have benefitted from it.
The company’s headcount as of March 31, 2023, stood at 6,14,795. In the previous quarter, TCS in Q3FY23 posted a decline of 2,197 people in its employee base, and TCS headcount stood at 613,974 as on December 31, 2022.
