The Hindu Business Line : H-P reviewing staff security systems

Mr Amit Sircar, Communications and Customer Operations, Global Delivery Operations Services, said, "As per our existing security process, the HP Transport Desk receives a call from the regular cab driver informing them that the employee has boarded a replacement cab. This information is logged in as is the procedure. The key task of the HP Transport Desk is to provide regular and timely availability of transport to all employees."

The release also said that in this case there was no alarm raised by the driver on any misconduct nor any indication of an untoward incident was given to the HP Transport Desk. Hence no escalation was raised to the employee's immediate supervisor.

Mr Sircar also said that the company has a process where misbehaviour of the drivers is logged in describing the nature and seriousness of offence. "As per our records, the company has not received any such complaints for the accused from our employees. Given the nature of the industry, there is between 15-20 per cent of absenteeism / no show. An occurrence of an employee not reporting uninformed is taken as no show and does not trigger alarm," according to the statement.

However, the company was currently conducting an exhaustive security review to make the system as fool-proof as possible, he said.

The Managing Director of HP Global Soft, Mr Som Mittal, told Business Line, "it is a sad and an unfortunate incident. The safety and security of our employees is of prime concern to us. We will try and put tighter norms such as police verification for service providers which would prove as deterrents to such incidents."