Swiggy announces sexual harassment policy for women delivery executives

Swiggy has announced on Wednesday a new sexual harassment policy to prtotect its female delivery agents, according to news reports. If a female delivery agent faces any harassment that is also a punishable offence by law, from a customer, Swiggy will remove that customer from the platform, the company has said.

Swiggy's latest policy applies to customers and third parties who are otherwise not covered under the Sexual harassment at workplace guidelines.

According to the policy, if the harassment occurs at a customer’s location, Swiggy will not assign any other female delivery executive to that customer and will also highlight there number on its platform, so that if the customer orders from a different location, then also no female executive is employed to it. This however will happen only after the initial investigation is completed. If the reported offence is punishable by law then it will lead to the removal of customers from the Swiggy's platform. The female employee can at any point raise a police complaint against the accused.

"In such cases, we will always support the authorities in the investigation," the company said.

Providing an Emergency SOS number for support, the company said that "in case of a sexual harassment case arising due to customers, male counterparts, restaurant partners, and Swiggy employees, the woman delivery executive can reach out to Swiggy’s Emergency SOS number for support."

The female delivery agent can ask for emergency assistance in such cases and can lodge a complaint with Swiggy’s on-ground team. 

An initial investigation by an internal committee headed by a woman will be followed by guidance on what the delivery executive can do. In case a Swiggy employee is the perpetrator, the case will come under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act was passed in 2013 since the employee is bound to the company.

But when the perpetrator is a restaurant partner/consumer/ fellow delivery partner, after an initial investigation by an internal committee headed by a woman, the delivery executive will receive guidance on what can be done under Swiggy's new policy. For instance, the company will help the affected delivery partner with what IPC provisions are available, support in filing a complaint, and support the authorities in their investigation.

The Swiggy application for delivery executive has an SOS button that along with providing round-the-clock support also connects executives to an ambulance, the local police station, or the Swiggy helpline as the need arises.