TW- Suicide
Newspapers and tabloids every day are filled with the news of workplace harassment and suicide. It has become the new normal in a progressive nation. Few fight with situations and emerge victorious, others whither away in failure and some suffocate under the pressure. But few headlines catch eyeballs and demand attention.
A 27-year-old woman from Ghaziabad died by suicide on July 12, after facing constant workplace harassment from her colleagues.
A 27-year-old woman from Ghaziabad died by suicide on July 12, after facing constant workplace harassment from her colleagues. She complained, fought, resigned, and when finally presented with a termination letter succumbed to suicide. The woman is said to have consumed poisonous substances at around 4 pm after which she was admitted to the MMG hospital in Ghaziabad. Her worsening condition led the doctors to refer her to the GTB hospital in Delhi where she died during treatment the same evening.
Her brother approached the local Nandgram police station and lodged a complaint against her colleagues under section 108 (abetment of suicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita (BNS). A suicide note was found in her room where she reportedly claims physical and mental harassment at the workplace by three of her colleagues (including women) and some other staff members. Her brother blamed her colleagues saying, ‘These people are responsible for her suicide.’
Workplace harassment
The 27-year-old woman was a tele-caller hired by a third-party company called QUESS Corp. Limited for Axis Bank. She joined Axis Bank on October 21 last year right after completing her MBA from a private institution. Both Axis Bank employees and third-party employees worked together out of the Axis house building in Noida. QUESS Corp. Limited is a third-party partner of Axis Bank that provides its manpower.
The six colleagues named in the suicide note have been reportedly harassing her at the workplace for months. They have been using derogatory remarks such as ‘bandariya‘ and ‘divorcee‘ to mock her appearance and personal life. The note names all these six colleagues, including a sales manager and an area sales manager, who are employees of the Axis Bank. They are accused of persistent harassment including offensive language and ridicule spanning over six months. The harassment affected her mental health so much that she was seeking psychiatric help at Vimhans.
Who is answerable?
Amidst the formal fine print of Axis Bank employees and third-party employees and who is responsible, Axis Bank has issued a formal statement. It says that Axis Bank is ‘deeply saddened‘ by the unfortunate incident but also clarifies that the woman was not an Axis Bank employee. The Bank said, ‘She was an employee of QUESS Corp. Limited. From a preliminary review of the incident, we understand that there was a significant disagreement between the executive and another QUESS Corp employee at our Noida office.‘
The statement also adds how the bank is ‘cooperating with the authorities in the investigation into the unfortunate incident. Axis bank has a zero-tolerance policy for any code of conduct violation.’
Clearing its involvement and explaining how the bank prioritises the issue, it clarifies, ‘She was under investigation by QUESS Corp and was issued a show-cause notice on July 10 and disciplinary action was taken by QUESS Corp.’ The statement also adds how the bank is ‘cooperating with the authorities in the investigation into the unfortunate incident. Axis bank has a zero-tolerance policy for any code of conduct violation.’
Amidst the grey matter of being an Axis Bank employee and a third-party employee, who does a victim report to? The Bank employees can inflict harassment but the bank can shrug off any responsibility of harassment charges. The statement issued by Axis Bank sounds conveniently clean. The bank is cooperating with the authorities while maintaining that the victim was not their employee. Who then is responsible for third-party employees and their protection when they are harassed? What corporate laws protect the manpower that works for the bank but is not directly employed by them?
Toxic workplace
With unemployment rising, youngsters are forced to accept employment opportunities that are not strictly white-collar, the need to earn forces them to make haste decisions. Workplaces capitalise on their vulnerable situation. With unreasonable working hours and extended work burdens, they are forced to tolerate the toxicity.
The skewed power dynamics where two types of employees are hired in the same firm are increasingly becoming apparent. Third-party employers make hiring processes easier and corporate responsibility negligible. The big employers now have the manpower for fewer dollars and they need not worry about equal pay, benefits, or protection from workplace harassment.
The big employers now have the manpower for fewer dollars and they need not worry about equal pay, benefits, or protection from workplace harassment.
The way Axis Bank decided to tackle this situation after repeated complaints from the victim is outrightly egregious. The onus of workplace harassment must lie with parent companies and not just be evaded.
The horrendous acts
Shivani suffered targeted harassment for over six months at her workplace. A place that is supposed to be safe became a suffering for her. Along with the acts of body shaming, name calling and repeated insults like calling her ‘dimag se pagal‘ (mad) followed instances of physical harassment. The police are investigating the origins of these insults and abuse.
According to Shivani’s note, her colleagues made fun of her when her hands trembled, which could have possibly been a result of the mental agony. Whenever she complained to the sales manager and area sales manager, they would find faults with her rather than questioning the accused. When her agony became unbearable she told the manager but was asked to resign and go home.
In a reportedly detailed account, on June 29 her colleagues became abusive when asked to clean up after lunch near her workstation. The colleagues would intentionally eat near her desk and leave without cleaning after them. The victim’s mother also recounts how on a particular occasion, the main accuser added pieces of meat to Shivani’s lunch knowing that she was a vegetarian.
The victim’s mother also recounts how on a particular occasion, the main accuser added pieces of meat to Shivani’s lunch knowing that she was a vegetarian.
On July 9, an isolated incident of physical abuse is reported in her note. The accuser had pierced her skin with her nails resulting in blood trickling. These acts when reported to the manager were left unheard. The repeated acts of abuse and insult broke the victim mentally and the last nail in the coffin was the termination letter she received two hours before consuming poison.
The controversy
Shivani tried to resign multiple times but her resignation was not accepted. She was in turn handed a letter of termination, two hours after which she consumed poison.
After the act, ACP (Nandgram) Ravi Kumar Singh told PTI, ‘We are examining CCTV footage from the workplace of the deceased. We are also questioning her colleagues to ascertain the facts of the matter. A detailed probe is underway.’
After so many days of the act being reported, an FIR being lodged, and the police claiming swift action, the main perpetrators are still miles from the jail. The police have announced a 25k reward for information. The reward usually set for hard-boiled criminals, has unusually been set for Axis Bank employees accused of harassment.
The three colleagues named in the note have been arrested; sales manager Mohammad Akram (AXIS Bank employee), relationship officers Gunjan (32) and Girija Devi (36), both QUESS Corp employees. The 25k reward is announced for Jyoti Chauhan (main tormentor), a resident of sector 39, working in the same position as Shivani. The other accused still absconding is Nazmus Saquib who lives in sector 100, working as area sales manager.
The police officers are looking into the role of HR to determine why the termination letter was sent when she resigned on July 10th. Akram is believed to have told the cops that Jyoti influenced him to send the termination letter instead of accepting her resignation.
The suicide of a 27-year-old bank employee is a statement of a woman whose final message was her death.
The suicide of a 27-year-old bank employee is a statement of a woman whose final message was her death. Her agony is hidden and forgotten under heaps of similar news about suicide deaths. The note she left for her brother is not a letter remembering her abuse but a call for him to avenge her death. She recalls in detail whatever she endured and urged her brother to not let her death go in vain. What would a young girl have to go through to die to avenge her insult cannot be contained under the flag of workplace harassment. Every suicide death needs to be read as a story and not forgotten as an accident.
