K'taka tightens safety laws for women

BANGALORE: Four months after the murder of HP call center employee Pratibha Srikanth Murthy, the Karnataka Government has made changes in laws related to transport of women employed on night duty in the IT and BPO sectors.

The Labour Commissioner recently notified the amendments in Section 25 of the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act.

The new guidelines stipulate the presence of armed guards for vehicles transporting women employees, a communication network to connect the vehicles with the company and a control room to monitor the movement of all vehicles.

The law also mandates that the company has the bio-data and antecedents of drivers engaged by them verified by the police. Besides, the employee would need to be informed of the vehicle's license plate number and name of the driver assigned to pick her up and any change should be informed in advance.

The supervisory staff of the company has to plan in advance, the schedule and pick-up and drop of women employees. Any change of drivers or routes should be allowed only with prior knowledge of employees and their supervisors.

Managements are not permitted to disclose telephone numbers, particularly mobile numbers of woman employees to unauthorised persons. Routes should be carefully selected so that no woman employee is the first to be picked up or the last to be dropped.