Navigating Night Shift Transport: How Should Companies Handle Women's Requests for No Pickup?

As per the labor law, we are mandated to drop women employees home after 8 pm in the BPO/IT sector.

Queries Regarding Employee Transport

1. What if a woman employee is using her own transport? Will the company be responsible if something happens to her?

2. What if some women employees send a request stating they will not be taking company transport for a particular day since someone is picking them up? What should the company do in such scenarios?

The above are tricky situations for companies. How can the company legally safeguard itself in such situations?

Deviations from Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

Any deviations from the SOP should be allowed only in writing with a disclaimer on the company's responsibility and should be ratified by a senior officer by way of prior approval. Especially in the latter case, such deviations should be discouraged and restricted to extremely rare incidences based on special occasions or circumstances supported by valid reasons and in writing, which should have the approval of senior reporting officers.

Warm regards.

Please ensure that each female employee confirms daily that they prefer to arrange their own transportation and do not require company transport. Additionally, they must confirm their awareness of security risks and certify that their parents or spouses are also informed of the same.

Regards

If anyone voluntarily decides not to use the transport and security provided by you, then you are not liable for the consequences. However, it often happens that in the case of an incident, the authorities will be at your throat. The situation then is not "innocent till proven guilty." It is presumed guilty until rebutted.

So, you need to have proper documentation at your end and systems intended to ensure that the rules are followed and that they can't be bent to serve someone's narrow agenda.

Suggestions for Transport and Security Management

- Anyone not wanting to use company transport because they have their own car must give it in writing to the HR head. Details of their transport must be provided. Security must be informed to allow that vehicle to come into the campus and be parked in a safe place. If it's parked outside, see if a security guard can accompany the female employee to the car and record a safe start. (There will be other considerations depending on the ground reality.)

- It's very important to have a system to ensure that HR or operations are not encouraging or coercing someone to take private transport for logistic reasons or due to budgetary constraints (e.g., one person in a director, not enough seats in the car/bus).

- In case anyone is leaving with someone else (employee or outsider) on one occasion, you must have a system. Perhaps send an email to HR and security head, keep a copy to be signed out at the gate, and then filed. Or if you have an intranet-based system with access to security, use that. That person must sign a gate register and provide details of the vehicle and the pick-up person to security when leaving.

Again, the above is an example of what you may want to do.

Basically, you need proof that you have done your due diligence and that the employee wanted to do it her way.

I am facing a situation at my workplace. My company (a BPO/IT firm) provides transport facilities, with additional security provided for women working after 8 pm. However, the rules for women's transportation stand as follows:

1. Women CANNOT use their own vehicles after 8 pm; they MUST take the company transport (two violations of the said rule are thought to lead to immediate termination).

2. If they are not using the company transport, they may ONLY be allowed to leave the company premises IF they are escorted by their FATHER, BROTHER, or HUSBAND. (God forbid that they are single in the city).

Now, as a woman who has been driving her own vehicle since the age of 18, I have repeatedly told the transport department and HR that I AM WILLING TO LEAVE ON MY OWN COGNIZANCE and have offered to provide them with a written letter or affidavit stating this. Instead, I have been told that as per the latest Karnataka Laws, it is MANDATORY to take the company transport after 8 pm.

Is it legal for the company to force an employee to utilize the company transport, more so when she is willing to assume all the risks of traveling on her own and is willing to provide a statement to that effect?

I have gone through the Karnataka Shops & Establishment Act and the Factories Act, and there is no mention of any guidelines pertaining to women using their vehicles. Please let me know if there is any specific statute or law that allows me to use my vehicle.

Please provide links or reference numbers of the law/statute/circular as I will be escalating this issue.

Kindly note that getting my brother, father, or husband to escort me is out of the question as I do not have a brother, my father is deceased, and my husband's office is 20 km away from mine (one way).

Your urgent help is solicited.

Picking up and dropping off women employees at home during night hours is the employer's responsibility. However, if any woman wishes to make her arrangements, it will be of her volition. Instead of issuing a letter to the woman employee, I recommend obtaining an affidavit from the woman employee. An affidavit is recommended because it holds more legal value than a routine application submitted on plain paper.

In the affidavit, ask the woman employee to state that making transportation arrangements on her own is her conscious choice, and she will not hold the employer responsible for any risks associated with this arrangement.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar