As many as 200 women garment workers employed with Texport Apparels LLP at Peenya 4th stage protested against their general manager and some others for allegedly intimidating, assaulting and outraging the modesty of a 36-year-old woman garment worker on March 12.
The protesters alleged that the Rajagopalnagar police refused the register a case until members of the Karnataka Garment Workers Union (KOOGU) intervened. They took up a case on March 15, booking general manager Shashi Kumar Shetty under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 354 (sexual harassment) of the IPC.
“The women have been complaining about the harassment in writing and putting them in complaint boxes inside the factory. There have been at least 200 complaints in the suggestion box, which have not been even looked into, and they just disappear from the box,” alleged a woman garment worker.
Karnataka State Women’s Commission Chairperson Nagalakshmi Bai, on Monday, visited the factory and spoke to the women. She has ordered suspension of the men involved in the assault for three months, and an inquiry has been initiated.
M.V. Sagar, General Manager, Human Resources of Texport Apparels LLP, clarified that it was a work-related issue where the woman was refusing to take instructions from her manager.
“However, we have placed Shashi Kumar Shetty under suspension pending inquiry,” he said.