Ola says drivers not staff, can’t be hauled under POSH Act

Ola says drivers not staff, can’t be hauled under POSH Act

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 21.08.2024 

Bengaluru : Cab aggregator Ola has told Karnataka high court that taxi drivers are basically not its employees and hence, it cannot be directed to proceed against the cabbies under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) (POSH) Act. Making submissions to this effect, senior advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, who appeared for ANI Technologies that operates Ola cabs, also urged the court to dismiss a petition filed by a woman passenger who sought action against a driver for harassing her. 

Chinnappa submitted that the aggregator has taken action against the driver by blacklisting him. He, however, argued that the company cannot be held responsible as it is only an intermediary like Amazon and Flipkart. The driver is an independent person who only operates in terms of the contract, he claimed, arguing that the petition itself suffers from maintainabili ty as labour legislation cannot be made applicable when the drivers are independent. According to him, since action has already been taken against the driver, it will be extremely stretching to introduce a definition of a driver as an employee. 

Counsel for the petitioner-woman submitted that she chose to book an Ola cab instead of hailing a random one on the road because she felt the former would be safer. If Ola contends that it’s not responsible for passenger safety, the petitioner would not have entered that cab in August 2018, the court was told.

 Justice MGS Kamal, meanwhile, reserved his verdict. The woman filed the petition in 2019 alleging that she was sexually harassed by an Ola driver in August 2018, and that the company had failed to take appropriate action despite her filing a complaint. According to her, the driver watched a pornographic video on his mobile phone in a manner that it was visible to her, masturbated and refused to stop the cab.