How Do I Draft a Complaint Letter About Inappropriate Behavior Towards Female Staff?

Request for Assistance: Drafting a Complaint Letter

I am seeking assistance with drafting a sample complaint letter to my Managing Director concerning the inappropriate behavior of a staff member towards female employees. The issue at hand is that this particular employee consistently demonstrates disrespectful behavior towards female staff members. Numerous female employees have raised complaints about his conduct. However, as of now, no official report has been submitted to my Managing Director, which I intend to rectify. Recently, he crossed a line by inappropriately touching one of my female subordinates, and this is absolutely unacceptable to me.

I kindly request your prompt response to this matter.

Thank you,

Nilam

Dear Nilam, What is happening in your company is unfortunate. Nevertheless, what is surprising is that women are tolerating this nonsense. Why have women never felt compelled to take a stand against him?

Anyway, you have the best knowledge of the incident, so it is better that you draft the letter yourself and share it here. Some seniors, like me, will review and provide feedback. When drafting the letter, please include the following:

a) What happened?
b) When did it happen (date, time, etc.)?
c) Where did it happen?
d) Who were the parties involved in the incident?
e) Were there any witnesses?
f) What was the woman's reaction when she was groped?
g) What was the man's reaction who groped?
h) Do we have any material evidence? Do we have any circumstantial evidence?

When reporting the incident, it is crucial to present only the facts without adding any interpretation or logic. Advise your subordinate to write the application as she is the victim of sexual harassment. If you witnessed the incident, you should be the witness.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

This falls under the category of sexual harassment, and even a verbal complaint to the chairperson of the ICC of your organization is sufficient. Do not wait for any format; just write when and how it happened and complain.

Clarification on Complaint Procedures under the Sexual Harassment Act

Section 9 of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 states that any aggrieved woman may make, in writing, a complaint of sexual harassment at the workplace to the Internal Committee.

The Act further specifies that where such a complaint cannot be made in writing, the Presiding Officer or any Member of the Internal Committee or the Chairperson or any Member of the Local Committee, as the case may be, shall provide all reasonable assistance to the woman for making the complaint in writing.

What is important is whether the querying company has constituted an ICC or not, if the number of employees is 10 or more. In case the employees are not more than 10, it is essential to ascertain whether the Local Committee has been constituted by the Government in that locality.

To understand the implementation of this Act, one should inquire about the number of Local Committees constituted nationwide. This inquiry will shed light on the extent to which the Act is being enforced.

The Government continues to introduce laws without ensuring their implementation. Unfortunately, this oversight persists.

Kind regards

Hello Nilam, you wanted replies ASAP on 27 July but haven't responded to any of the replies posted so far. Not sure if this is for real...

Assuming the incidents did happen, please also give more details about your company. Like other members pointed out, provide information such as the number of employees.

Do you have an HR department, if not an ICC? If yes, has this been raised with HR? What was the result?

While there's no bar on taking this issue to your MD, the obvious question from him/her would be what I raised above. Was this raised with HR?

I suggest giving more details to the extent you are comfortable with sharing in such a public forum. This will enable the members to give actionable suggestions. Please note that submitting a written complaint is necessary when you want to put things on record and expect things to go legal.

Quite often, for a solution to emerge and action to be taken, a written complaint may not always be needed. Just the fact that you are ready to give a written complaint should suffice.

Regards, TS