UncategorizedKey learnings from the Zomato sexual harassment case

17^th January2023

A three-member bench of the District consumer forum in Delhi have asked Zomato and its restaurant partner, McDonalds to appear before the Court on a plea that involves the allegations of sexual harassment case by the delivery partner.

The Complainant who was the consumer has said that it was a great setback and shock to her when the Zomato delivery agent sexually harassed her at her own home, jeopardizing her safety in the late hours of night. The plea talks about the immense mental trauma and emotional breakdown she faced because of the alleged sexual assault and grave misconduct by the delivery agent engaged by Zomato without a background check. The plea submitted that the details of the delivery agent provided on the Zomato app and the actual agent who came to deliver the food were different. This was discovered later as there was no a photo uploaded on the app which could have helped in the identification of the accused by the Complainant.

The Complainant told the forum that she had lodged a formal complaint with the police as an first information report (FIR) for sexual harassment which was registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It is only after the IO at the police station made a call to the Complainant and requested her to the identify the delivery agent at the police station, that she was able to identify the delivery agent who admitted to using his brother’s Zomato account to make all of the deliveries.

The plea highlights that though Zomato has on their App, put up guidelines wherein a Complainant is advised to follow up on such grievances within 12 hours, following which stringent action would be effectively taken against the delivery agents, however, there was no follow up by Zomato and nothing was done to redress her grievance. To the utter horror of the Complainant, she found that the chat window was closed by stating “issue resolved”.

Zomato Pvt. Ltd has been sent a legal notice on account of the damages caused due to deficiency of services on its part, inaction and wilful default after the Complainant moved the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission at Delhi, seeking a compensation of ₹20,00,000 (₹ 20 Lakhs) for the agony, trauma, and harassment, both physical and mental suffered by her .

The Complainant has stated that Zomato is liable to compensate her for the deficiency in services, harassment, time wastage, mental agony, litigation expenses, and the immense suffering caused to her and also sought an unconditional and unqualified apology, by way of writing a letter and acknowledging the omissions on their part. Additionally, she also sought directions of the court for the cost of litigation to be paid to her.

The legal team of Zomato is stated to have sent an email to the Complainant apologizing for the delivery agents alleged conduct, and they stated that they will cooperate with the investigations being conducted by Greater Kailash police station.

Please note that if delivery agents are not on the payroll of the parent company and are hired by contractors / aggregators (like Zomato/ Swiggy/ Food Panda /Deliveroo/ Dunzo etc…) who may or may not have ten or more workers, there are two probable scenarios to be dealt with:

1. If the contractor / aggregator has ten or more workers, they may not have an IC because of a lack of awareness or dereliction of duty & compliance.
2. If the contractor/ aggregator has less than ten workers, they may not be aware of their obligations under the POSH Law and its related compliance.

Therefore, the parent company, the contractors, the aggregator app, should provide the POSH training through various means, such as in-person training, online courses, to communicate these policies to their entire workforce and ensure that these are effectively implemented to ensure the safety of all workers and customers.