CEOs face heat for unsafe office cabs

The Delhi Police have decided to go after the top bosses if the women employed in their companies are not dropped home safely after a night shift. Faizan Haidar reports.

The Delhi Police have decided to go after the top bosses if the women employed in their companies are not dropped home safely after a night shift.

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Up until now, it was only the cab driver who was arrested if he was found violating guidelines set by the police on safety of women working night shifts. These guidelines make it mandatory for employers to have their women employees dropped at their doorstep, have a security guard accompanying them and install GPS technology in the cabs.

Police say they will summon the top management of a company that is found to be violating these norms. “If the violation is small, we will issue them a warning. Serious violation may even lead to arrest of the employer,” said a police officer.

The Delhi Police had issued night-shift guidelines after a 30-year-old call centre employee from Mizoram was gang raped in December 2010. The guidelines were reissued after the December 16 gang rape last year but most of the companies were not following it.

On Friday too, a cab driver employed by a BPO firm was arrested for “abandoning” a female employee a kilometre away from her south Delhi home in the middle of the night.

Between 2,700 and 3,000 call centre cabs ply on Delhi streets daily.

“It is not the driver but the employer who is supposed to follow the guidelines. We have summoned the bosses of few companies, whose cabs were challaned for violating norms. We will start arresting them if required,” said Ajay Chaudhry, additional CP (southeast).