PHANEESH MURTHY SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE

PRESENTED BY:-1. GAUTAM CHOPRA 2. MAHIMA CHANDAK3. MUDIT KHAJANCHI4. MITALI BHURA 5. SONIKA SINGHI

Business Ethics Presentation

About InfosysInfosys is provider of technology, engineering and outsourcing services.

Infosys was co-founded in 1981 by N. R.Narayana Murthy, Nandan

Nilekani and other management partners

Its headquartered in Bangalore. It has offices in 30 countries

Today, Infosys is a global leader in the "next generation" of IT and consulting

with revenues of billion

Infosys ranked among the most innovative companies in a Forbes survey

About Phaneesh Murthy

•Phaneesh murthy 38 years old man, the head of sales

and marketing and communication and product services division

of Infosys

•Phaneesh Murthy, the highest-paid employee of Infosys, he used

to take Rs.1.91 crore every year.

About Reka Maximovitch

Reka Maximovitch, an American citizen of Bulgarian descent.

Reka Maximovitch was working as Phaneesh Murthy's executive assistant.

While she was facing sexual harassment from Murthy from October 1999 she was not reported,

may be due to fear of social ridicule or fear of losing her job.

She was wrongfully terminated from job in Dec’2000.

Problems in the case

•Reka filed a complaint in Oakland,USA on 17 Dec', alleging sexual harassment, unlawful termination against Phaneesh murthy.

•Infosys became entangled in the scandal, it is the first negative news about Infosys since its

inception.

•Murthy abruptly resigned from Infosys.Initially,Murthy refused to participate in the settlement initiated by Infosys.

•Infosys ahead with the settlement without any contribution from murthy.

•Later on, He voluntarily signed the settlement and agreed to every condition that Infosys had set.

Why the things gone wrong

•Lack of corporate governance

•Infosys maintained a studied silence on the episode on the ground that the

matter was subjudice.

•Media reports blamed Infosys for having kept the issue under wraps for a long

time.

•The Company’s share price declined by 6.6percent soon after phaneesh left

How the settlement went

•Giving details of the settlement, Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy told

media persons that the company would be paying $3million to the accuser.

•Of this, Infosys would contribute $1.5 million while insurers would cough up the remaining

$1.5million under the company's directors and officers liability insurance cover.

INFOSYS POLICY ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT

•Anti- sexual harassment Initiative (ASHI).

•Encourage employee to report unethical behaviour under whistle blower policy.

•Independent (non-Infosys) grievance redressal body and procedure.

• The redressal body consists of an independent chair person who is a lady, as required by the Supreme

Court guidelines and four committee members who are employees.

•As a part of the training process all officers and board members have been given a course on the

prevention of sexual harassment. 

Ethical or Unethical?

Yes, this was unethical. Even in organisations like Infosys, which is known for its best

ethical culture and had strict policies for such harassments, the things went wrong.

Event though out of court settlements are valid in some work places, but I case like

sexual harassment, it was clearly unethical & not the best solution. Instead of clearly

addressing, the problem, this solution simply paid off 3 million to the victim (Rekha) ,

so the defendant (Phaneesh) could walk away. This could be dealt with other solutions

which you will know in upcoming slides…….

How to overcome

Even though there are policies for sexual harassment such disturbing cases happen to overcome this difficulty

Employer’s role

- CREATE SEXUAL HARASSMENT POLICY

- COMMUNICATE THE POLICY

- EXECUTE ACCORDING TO THE POLICY

- MAKE A GREIVIENCE CELL

- TRAINING THE EMPLOYEES

How to overcome

EMPLOYEE’S OR VICTIM’S ROLE:

- DEALING WITH THE HARASSER

- COMMUNICATE THE PROBLEM

- FORMAL AND OFFICIAL REPORTING

-CREATE WITNESS

- SET BOUNDARIES

“THE ORGANISATION AS A WHOLE HAS TO WORK TO ERADICATE THIS PROBLEM OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT”