Inclusivity: Tata Steel Meramandali, Odisha Employs Women Stacker-Cum-Reclaimer Operators

Meramandali: Continuing its journey of inclusivity, Tata Steel Meramandali (TSM), Dhenkanal, has deployed four female operators as Stacker-cum Reclaimers (SCR) in its raw material handling system (RMHS) though its vendor partner Vaaman Engineers India Ltd. For the first time in Tata Steel, women employees will work as SCR operators.  One woman operator for Hyva has also joined them.

Subodh Pandey, Vice President, TSM, interacted with them along with other executives of TSM  Sandeep Dhir, Chief, Human Resource Business Partner, Subrata Basak, Chief, Logistics Operation and Suvransu Sekhar Rout, Chief, RMHS & Raw Material Processing Plant, TSM. 

Welcoming them Subodh Pandey said, “We are extremely pleased to have you in our team as this marks a monumental milestone on gender balance among the workforce in the plant. While accelerating our commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, this measure will also encourage more girls to look for such jobs.”

Breaking the barrier, the female SCR operators with Diploma in Mechanical Engineering underwent safety induction and on the job training, prior to their onboarding for stacking and reclaiming operation, considered mostly as a male-only job. 

From the formation of MOSAIC, the company’s Diversity & Inclusion initiative in 2015, to recruiting women in mines and participating in RISE – the largest job fair for LGBTQ+ in Asia, to the recent recruitment of transgender people, Tata Steel is evolving as a global torchbearer in inclusiveness. It is credited with several path-breaking initiatives including menstrual leaves, equal benefits for LGBTQ+ partners, gender-neutral parental leaves, support for gender confirmation and more. It is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, safe and fair workplace and has taken a target of having a 25 percent diverse workforce by 2025. Tata Steel is a certified gold employer under Workplace Equality Index for the LGBT+ workforce.