1. UNDERSTAND BASICS
Sexual Harassment of Women & men at Workplace
Sexual Harassment is any unwelcome act or behaviour (whether express or implied), such as:
2. POSH LAW
PREVENTION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT – POSH Law
Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, enacted by the Government of India ( POSH Act 2013) makes safe workplace a woman’s legal right and all forms of sexual harassment at workplace, illegal.
Government of India (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) has made it mandatory for every organization with female employees.
What is considered sexual harassment under the Act?
(1) Physical contact and advances;
(2) A demand or request for sexual favours;
(3) Making sexually coloured remarks;
(4) Showing pornography
(5) Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature. Constitutes sexual harassment.
Section 3 of the Act widens the scope of Sexual Harassment by stating that any of the following circumstances, related to sexual harassment, may also amount to Sexual Harassment. They are:
(1) Implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in the victim’s employment;
(2) Implied or explicit threat of detrimental treatment in the victim’s employment;
(3) Implied or explicit threat about the victim’s present or future employment status;
(4) Interferes with the victim’s work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment for her and
(5) Humiliating treatment likely to affect the victim’s health or safety.
Who is an Employer?
Section 2 (g) of the Act defines Employer as: any person responsible for the management, supervision and control of the workplace and management includes the person or board or committee responsible for formulation and administration of polices for such organization.
What are the obligations of an employer?
As per the Sexual Harassment Act of 2013, an employer has to:
1) Provide a safe working environment at the workplace
2) Constitute a POSH Policy
3) Display at any conspicuous place in the workplace, the penal consequences of sexual harassments
4) Sensitize the Employees through awareness programs and training
5) Every employer with 10 or more employees should form an Internal Committee (IC). The committee must include:
i) Presiding Officer a lady employee appointed from Senior Management
ii) Minimum of two members representing the employees of the organization
iii) One External Member from an NGO or a lawyer
6) Provide Orientation Training and skill building programs for the Internal Committee Members
7) Declare the names and contact details of all the Members of the Internal Committee
8) Submit annual reports by the Internal Committee to the District Officer mentioning the information regarding POSH training and cases filed.
What are the consequences of non-compliance?
1) Penalty extending up to Rs.50,000 is prescribed
2) In cases of repeat offense, the penalty will be doubled and
3) Can also lead to cancellation of business license.
Organizations must note that if a matter of sexual harassment reaches court and the court finds that ICC was not even constituted as per the Act, apart from imposing penalty as per the Act, the court has discretion to order other amount as damages from employers.
In a sexual harassment case, Madras High Court directed a company based out of Chennai to pay 1.68 Crores as damages on account of sexual harassment to an aggrieved woman.
What should you do to be compliant?
Draft a strong POSH Policy
Sensitize all employees through POSH Training
Form an Internal Committee (IC)
Train the Internal Committee members on investigation procedure, formalities, confidentiality, formatting of reports and submission
Filing of the annual report to the District Officer
Drive POSH compliance in your organization
3. Government Guidelines
As per the Act, the employer is obligated to display the order constituting ICC at any conspicuous place in the workplace. However, if this is not done, then one can contact the employer/head of the department/human resource department to obtain information about the ICC constituted under the SH Act.
Government Penalties
Non constitution of Complaints Committee is punishable with a fine of Rs.50,000/- and repeat offenders will be punished with cancellation/withdrawal of licence/registration required for carrying on business activities. The aggrieved can approach the court to complain about the same.
4. FORM COMMITTEE
Sexual Harassment Committee
Women are important and we cannot imagine our society healthy and nourishing without them. In the Indian context they are worshiped. Irrespective of the fact there exist people with criminal mindset looking for opportunity to harass them. Sexual Harassment at work exists and we must eradicate from the system for a healthy work environment. Making policies to prevent sexual harassment is made mandatory by the government from 2014. The guidelines to implement this in organizations keep on updating time to time to make the law stronger and effective.
Ministry of Women and Child Development recently introduced a system to manage complaints for sexual harassment against women. Therefore, it is responsibility for all organizations to take care of women employees and their dignity.
At Niveda foundation we help the organization to implement important practices about sexual harassment. We also help them form committee with the correct structure and members.
We also provide professional services to organizations to do the needful which include the following.
Meri Apni Pehchan (MAP), is a Delhi based NGO that puts forth a platform to aid the marginalized in our society.
