Unreported Complaints: Why Many Companies Have Zero Employee Complaints
When it comes to raising concerns about working conditions, health and safety at the workplace, a vast majority of employees in India’s leading companies remain silent. According to data from Prime Database’s Business Responsibility & Sustainability Reporting (BRSR), the top 1,062 listed companies in India received over 220,000 health and safety-related complaints and nearly 75,000 working conditions-related complaints in FY23. However, despite the staggering numbers, the complaints are highly concentrated within a small group of companies.
An overwhelming 944 companies reported no complaints regarding health and safety, while 920 companies indicated that they had not received any complaints regarding working conditions.
Differences in complaint handling
Interestingly, the majority of complaints were concentrated in a few companies, which reported that nearly 100 percent of the complaints they filed were resolved. This suggests that while some companies are proactively addressing these issues, other companies may be underreporting or failing to create a safe space for employees to voice their concerns.
From FY23, top-ranked companies are required to disclose employee and worker grievances under the BRSR framework. However, as many companies do not share data from the previous year, year-on-year comparison is not possible.
“This is a serious concern of employees who do not raise their grievances as it is unlikely that there would be zero complaints,” Bino Paul, professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying by The Economic Times.
Challenges in Complaints Management
“The evolution from industrial relations and personnel management to human resource management has led to a strategy that tends to maximise shareholder profits and undermine the autonomy of human resources. This is a concern as employees are a key stakeholder and there is no longer a neutral, autonomous body to deal with labour issues,” Paul added.
The problem can also stem from the way complaints are managed within organisations. “Complaints are not always recorded systematically in companies,” says Nagaraj Krishnan, managing director of Aparajitha Corporate Services. “Complaints are often treated as non-issues unless they escalate to a critical level or attract unwanted attention,” he says.
Vikram Shroff, partner at AZB & Partners and an expert in employment law, suggested that the zero complaint figures could also be attributed to the compliance measures that companies have taken. “Post-Covid, many employers have been proactive in implementing health and safety measures. Some companies are going all out to feature in ‘best employer’ surveys as part of their recruitment and retention strategy, which can help reduce or eliminate workplace complaints,” he said. The Economic Times.
First publication: Sep 26, 2024 | 2:55 PM IST