The case unfolding at Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) Nashik office has escalated. From an initial complaint to multiple investigations, it raisesq uestions around workplace safeguards and internal accountability at large employers. 

From a sexual harassment complaint to subsequent reports around the case, the accused are now under investigation, with details continuing to emerge on what the victim allegedly endured. While this is one instance, conversations around similar concerns at other firms — including Infosys — are also surfacing on social media. The larger question this raises is whether top employers in the country, including TCS, with over five lakh employees, may have underlying structural gaps in how such issues are prevented and addressed. 

As per TCS’s FY25 annual report, 125 new sexual harassment (POSH) cases were registered, up from 110 in FY24. By the end of FY25, 23 cases remained pending resolution. 

According to law experts, the IT and BPO sector carries well-known risk factors. The bigger concern, however, is that even when such matters escalate, they are often treated as HR issues rather than board-level priorities. 

Speaking to Business Today, Shivaarti Bajaj, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at RSD Bajaj Global Law Firm, says, “the IT and BPOs have steep hierarchies, a young workforce often relocated far from family support, night shifts that blur professional and personal boundaries, and — critically — a deep institutional reluctance to escalate anything that could become a reputational liability.” This, she notes, points to a structural problem. 

She adds that individual criminal liability always remains personal, but under the POSH Act, employers are obligated to conduct awareness programmes and foster conditions for safe reporting. 

However, many women still do not feel safe enough to report such issues. Even where cases are reported, experts say it is reasonable to assume that several more go unreported, as barriers tend to reinforce each other. 

“There are many reasons to it,” Bajaj says, “fear of retaliation — termination, poor appraisals, being quietly sidelined; social stigma, particularly for women from smaller towns; and a justified distrust of HR departments that employees often perceive as protecting the company rather than the complainant.” 

From compliance to accountability: Where governance is falling short 

Pratik Vaidya, Managing Director and Chief Vision Officer of Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions Pvt. Ltd, believes that in many companies, while the language suggests board-level priority, the operating model still treats such issues as HR matters, until a crisis erupts. “That is the real gap,” he says. 

Large, listed companies already have governance frameworks in place. Infosys, for instance, discloses a Board Risk Management Committee comprising independent directors and notes that it reviews reputation, regulatory, legal, and compliance risks, with regular reporting to the board. Since July 14, 2025, companies are also required to include sharper disclosures on sexual harassment in their Board Reports, including complaints received, disposed of, and those pending beyond 90 days. 

The issue, then, is not whether boards have oversight mechanisms — they do — but whether employee safety is monitored with the same rigour as cyber risk, fraud risk, or financial controls. 

What has shown results, according to experts, are anonymous reporting channels operated by independent third parties rather than internal systems routed through HR; external ombudspersons reporting directly to the board; and, most critically, visible consequences. When employees see that complaints lead to real disciplinary action — not quiet transfers or resignations framed as personal decisions — reporting tends to increase. 

Most large companies are compliant with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013, but governance often breaks down between formal compliance and lived reality. 

“A company may have an IC, training modules, policy acknowledgements and annual disclosures, yet still fail if complaints are informally neutralised before they mature into a formal case, if early warning signs are not aggregated, or if managers and HR treat repeat complaints as interpersonal noise rather than institutional risk,” Vaidya says. 

He adds that the TCS Nashik matter has sharpened these concerns, with reports pointing to repeated complaints, digital trails, and allegations of inaction, including scrutiny of an HR official who was also part of the IC. This, he notes, makes the issue far bigger than a POSH checklist failure. The real breakdown lies in escalation design, pattern recognition, and accountability for inaction — not the absence of policy. 

Strengthening governance, Vaidya argues, requires three key shifts. First, employee safety must move from annual compliance reporting to quarterly board dashboards, tracking metrics such as complaints, pending cases, retaliation flags, anonymous reports, repeat locations, late-night transport risks, and vendor-linked incidents. 

Second, companies need truly independent reporting and oversight mechanisms, including ombuds channels outside HR and business lines, periodic external reviews of sensitive cases, and automatic escalation to the board for repeat complaints or those pending beyond a defined threshold. 

Third, the safety framework must extend beyond direct employees to include contract staff, vendors, transport providers, security personnel, and third-party supervisors. In modern IT and BPM operations, workforce risk extends across this wider ecosystem. While the law already mandates a safe workplace and regulators are pushing for stronger disclosures, the next step, experts say, is independent audits, not just self-certification. 

As investigations continue, the TCS Nashik case is likely to be seen as more than an isolated failure, it is a test of whether India Inc. is willing to move beyond compliance checklists to real accountability. For large employers, the question is no longer about having policies in place, but whether systems are designed to detect patterns early, protect complainants, and act decisively. Until employee safety is treated with the same urgency as financial and operational risks, such incidents risk recurring beneath the surface.