TCS fires sexual harassment complainant, blames her for speaking to media and unions

Five years after Revathi (name changed) filed a sexual harassment complaint against her manager at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the tech giant terminated her employment and cited her conduct and ‘social media posts’ among the reasons for her termination. Revathi, who was an employee of TCS for over 11 years, was fired on August 29, weeks after the Kancheepuram Labour Court ruled in the company’s favour in her workplace sexual harassment case. Revathi has currently appealed the verdict in the Madras High Court, which has given an interim stay in the case. The termination letter that TCS sent to Revathi after the Labour Court ruled in favour of its Internal Committee (IC), a copy of which TNM has seen, alludes to two news articles and four statements by labour unions alleging workplace harassment. The letter also says that her employment relationship with the company ceased in light of “her conduct at the workplace during the entire period of pendency of the aforementioned appeal, making it increasingly difficult for the organization” to get her to “work for the organization in the right spirit.”.Among the reasons given for the contractual termination of Revathi’s services, TCS claimed that she made “unfounded allegations” against the company on social media. Her discharge letter said, “...your subsequent allegations of workplace harassment for which you filed complaints with various social welfare and regulatory forums, you also through various social media forums published unfounded allegations against TCS.” However, Revathi herself has not made any social media posts about the case. The letter also said, “The Company officials including RMG team, Regional HR team, senior HR leadership team have taken serious efforts in addressing the said concerns raised by you from time to time and have been counseling you to enable you to be suitably deployed in the projects in the right spirit and achieve career progression. However, the same is of no avail.”The letter refers to a memo TCS sent to Revathi in 2023, which lists two articles on the case which appeared on the website News Click, and social media posts made by the Union of IT and ITES Employees (UNITE), Forum for IT Employees (FITE), and All India Forum For IT/ITES Employees (AIFITE). .Following the alleged incident of sexual harassment by her manager in 2018, Revathi had approached TCS’ IC, which concluded that sexual harassment did not take place. The IC’s inquiry report called her “on the verge of being hysterical” and “wanting attention from senior leaders”. Revathi had approached the Labour Court challenging TCS’ Internal Committee (IC). The Labour Court in turn favoured TCS and its IC, but the Madras High Court has now granted an interim stay in the matter. What were TCS’ grounds for firing the complainant In the discharge letter, TCS referred to an ‘Advisory Memo’ sent to Revathi in 2023, highlighting objections to certain social media posts. The memo, however, listed posts made by various IT employees’ unions in her support, as well as media articles that quoted her. A person close to Revathi told TNM that she herself never made any social media posts related to the case, and that Revathi was being penalised for seeking help from unions and media organisations. .Chandrashekhar Azad, General Secretary of the Union of IT and ITES Employees (UNITE), of which Revathi herself is also a member, said, “All these years, within the company, she couldn’t get justice. So she tried to seek help from a social welfare organisation, the Labour Department, the media. TCS is claiming this is inappropriate, but that’s unacceptable. When one doesn’t get justice within the organisation, they are bound to look for justice elsewhere.” Azad also questioned the timing of the termination. “It seems like a reaction to the verdict, and makes it look like they had been planning it for a while. They seem to have thought that a favourable verdict for TCS would ensure she wouldn’t have any space to make noise about it. She still has avenues to challenge their decision, and has approached the High Court. But the company appears to be trying to make sure she has fewer avenues,” he said. Another reason TCS has cited for the termination of her employment, is her “conduct at workplace” during the trial period, saying it made it “increasingly difficult for the organisation” to get her “suitably deployed.”Azad noted that over the past five years, while her appeal was being heard by the Labour Court, Revathi was moved from one project to another every few months. “This would often happen just before her appraisal, affecting her performance ratings and career growth. In a company such as TCS, employees in any role want to work on projects with a long-term commitment. If you get shuffled around too often, you will not be able to accomplish much, you may lose out on opportunities for a promotion. Even if they claim that they have given her opportunities, in such circumstances, it’s difficult for her to deliver work matching up to her capabilities. Their claims are self-contradictory,” he said, adding that this was another reason Revathi was forced to seek help from other forums, which TCS has objected to. .Revathi moved the Labour Court challenging the IC investigation in 2019. Since 2020, till the time she was fired, Revathi was released from five different accounts, often being reallocated to a new account a few months before the appraisal process is set in motion.The Kancheepuram Labour Court, which ruled in favour of TCS, went on to make several observations about her, a few of them taking a victim-blaming tone regarding the time Revathi took to file complaints and reveal the explicit details of her ordeal that she initially withheld. TNM has been following the case since 2019, and though the Labour Court’s order has now been stayed by the Madras High Court, the whole litigation process has put Revathi in a precarious position – of being caught between an alleged botch up by her multinational employer and the justice system.Read: Techie goes to court alleging TCS sexual harassment committee botched up probe.What happened six years ago?The said case dates back to more than six years ago — Revathi alleged that her manager sexually harassed her at an unscheduled, one-on-one work performance-related meeting in March 2018 when she was working on-site in the United Kingdom. She was, at the time, negotiating an appraisal with the higher management in the UK, and company rules dictate that a Human Resources staff should be present during meetings related to an employee’s appraisal, and that advance notice of the meeting should be given. She alleged that no prior intimation was given to her for this meeting, which culminated in sexual harassment by her manager.Revathi’s complaint said that after the incident, her manager followed her to the restroom, and when she told him his behaviour was inappropriate, he reprimanded her, claiming he had more power. She said that she then fainted at the bay, to be helped by her colleagues to one of their apartments to rest.A week later, she wrote to the higher ups about this, but did not mention the sexual harassment due to fear of victim shaming. Though the HR team assured action, she alleged that her manager’s harassment continued even after she returned to TCS’s India office — her work was downgraded, he lobbied against her with the higher management, and so on. Meanwhile, she attempted twice to resign, but her resignations were not accepted by her employers..When she eventually filed a complaint, TCS’s Internal Committee (IC) investigated it and concluded that the sexual harassment ‘could not be proven’. IC’s contentious inquiry The alleged incident took place in March 2018, and Revathi filed a complaint with the IC in October 2018. Following its inquiry, the IC published its findings in February 2019, concluding that sexual harassment could not be proven in the case. Revathi alleged that the IC had botched the inquiry. Among various discrepancies, she pointed out that the IC never provided her with a copy of the accused manager’s testimony or any of the minutes of the meeting of the inquiry – which is the norm for IC proceedings. The IC in its findings made several contentious remarks. It had said that the woman’s concerns “revolve mostly around her appraisal and performance rating.” It suggested that her “unhappy state of mind and highly distressed emotional state” were related to “concerns of her being single and her impending marital issues.”It said that she was “on the verge of being hysterical even in front of the committee,” and that she had escalated matters regarding her performance rating, wanting “attention from all senior leaders.”The IC also laid the blame on Revathi for confiding in her colleagues about the complaint and proceedings, saying she had “failed to uphold confidentiality.” It also raised as an anomaly the fact that Revathi refused to confront the accused about the sexual harassment incident. .However, the IC also said that the manager confining her in confidentiality outside of work hours in the conference room “may border on hostility and needs to be addressed”. For this, the IC’s remedy was to address him on “maintaining time and civil circumstances” with employees reporting to him, and to provide counseling services to Revathi if she wanted them. But the complaint as such was dismissed citing there was not enough proof of the alleged sexual harassment.Recently, another woman had taken to social media alleging that the TCS did not act on a complaint against a manager who sexually harassed her, saying there was ‘no evidence’. It was only after a month that they started a probe, after the woman pointed out that the man had sent inappropriate texts to another junior. TCS merely transferred him to another branch, she said. How the Labour Court ruled in favour of TCS’ ICRevathi moved the Kancheepuram Labour Court in 2019, asking for TCS’s IC report to be set aside, and for a fair re-investigation into her allegations. After several delays, adjournments, and the transfer of two judges, the Kancheepuram Labour Court delivered its verdict on August 2, 2024 favouring Revathi’s employer and her alleged harasser..Further, the court went on to reiterate the IC’s remarks about Revathi, some of which come off as victim blaming. The Labour Court, in its order, said that in the written sexual harassment complaint initially filed with TCS, dated October 31, 2018, Revathi alleged that the manager molested her, but did not “specifically state[d] which part of the body was touched.” Later, during the IC inquiry, she specified the body part. Based on this, the court’s order said that the “way of sexual harassment said to have been committed by [the manager/accused] is not clearly established and explained by [the complainant]” before the IC. The court also reiterated TCS’s IC report, which claimed that during its inquiry, Revathi’s focus was “mainly regarding employment benefits, continuation of the job in TCS, working with dignity and point of ramp down and going on leave, and not about sexual harassment” as alleged by her. The court further validated TCS’s allegation that the woman made the sexual harassment complaint as an afterthought only after the manager gave her a poor report on her performance appraisal, claiming that she was disappointed with the report. “Few infirmities here and there would not vitiate entire proceedings unless it is shown that some prejudice has been caused to the appellant,” the Labour Court order said, dismissing the appeal. .In response to Revathi’s contention that the IC had only allowed her manager to submit documents as evidence while denying her this opportunity, the court said that she had “not explained how she has been prejudiced due to non-supply of reports.” TCS didn't respond to our queries. .Invest in journalism that makes a difference. Subscribe to TNM and pay to keep the news free.

TCS fires sexual harassment complainant, blames her for speaking to media and unions

Related Stories