Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT firm, said that work from home is not a solution for sexual harassment cases and that education on the matter is what is needed.
The total number of sexual harassment complaints reported by TCS employees during the financial year 2023-24 were 110, compared to 49 in the previous year. However the IT giant’s annual report states that the 2023-24 figures include ones reported globally by employees and for 2022-23, the information is for Indian operations, excluding non-wholly owned subsidiaries, as reported by LiveMint.
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TCS has 601,546 employees of around 152 nationalities with women making up 35.6% of the employee base, the article read. The chairman said at an annual general meeting on Friday that for a company as large as TCS, “this number of cases is expected to happen,” in a response to a shareholder’s question.
The shareholder asked if remote working could solve the problem, questioning why TCS is hesitant on remote working.
“We are not trying to create jobs for people, we are trying to create careers for people,” replied Chandrasekharan. “In order to continue this being a very strong institution, we need to ensure that we invest in people at the same time people also build their careers with a company like us,” he added, emphasizing the importance of reinforcing education to create a healthy working atmosphere and culture.
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Addressing the pay gap in the median salary of ₹14.8 lakh for men versus ₹10.4 lakh for women, he said, “If there is a difference within a particular (salary) band it is because within that particular (salary) band there may be a difference in experience and level, etc,” adding that the company also wants to increase the composition of women employees, including in senior managerial roles from the current 36 per cent.
