Jaitley says no to Maneka Gandhi's plea for company to reveal workplace harassment panels

Union Minister of Women and child development Maneka Gandhi's plea to make it compulsory for companies to reveal whether they have set up an internal complaints committee to probe complaints of sexual harassment of women in workplace has been turned down by Finance and Corporate Affairs minister Arun Jaitley, The Indian Express reported.

According to the report, in a letter to Gandhi, Jaitley said that industrial representatives were against “enhanced disclosures under the Companies Act, 2013 and adding to these may not be desirable”.

The WCD minister has however asked Jaitley to reconsider his decision and in her response said “I would beg to differ with the view that mandating this would add any burden on the companies as the only information required to be disclosed in the Board/ Director’s report is that the companies have actually constituted the Internal Complaints committee”.

She further said that making such a provision mandatory will ensure that companies set up a functioning complaints committee and that this will be a "great step towards women empowerment,”

On Monday, Gandhi released the Handbook on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

The handbook aims to provide information about the provisions of the act in a user friendly manner.