CHENNAI: About a-two-and-a-half-decade fight of a survivor of workplace sexual harassment for justice has ended recently with the Madras High Court declaring that the employee had suffered sexual harassment and the management failed to take appropriate action and victimised the employee causing her agony and pain.
The court also ordered the management to pay her 60% back wages during the period she was kept under suspension.
The matter pertains to the petitions filed by the survivor who was an employee of the Railway Employees Cooperative Credit Society in Chennai. She had been serving in the society since 1994. Matters took a turn for the worse from 1998 when her superior officer Nagakesari began to harass her sexually. Her complaints against him (made since 2001) were not properly acted upon by the management. An inquiry held by a committee headed by a retired high court judge appointed by the National Commission for Women found there was sexual harassment.
Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on Tuesday on the petitions filed by the survivor and the management.
In this case, the management completely failed to implement any preventive measures and also failed to follow the Vishaka guidelines with reference to the enquiry, on the contrary chose to victimise the employee, the judge said. “The employee suffered sexual harassment and the management failed to take appropriate action. The disciplinary proceedings against her are victimisation and a fallout of the employee choosing to question the sexual harassment before all the authorities and pursue it aggressively,” Justice Chakravarthy stated in the order. He ruled that the charge memos issued between 2003 and 2004 shall be deemed to have lapsed and no further orders required.
The judge ordered that the employee will be deemed to have been retired from service from date of superannuation on May 31, 2023, and all the retirement benefits be paid with further interest of six per cent from the date of superannuation till the date of payment, within eight weeks, and she will be entitled to 60% of the back wages from March 12, 2004, to May 31, 2023, and the subsistence allowed, if paid already, shall be adjusted in the total amount.