The POSH Act holds the employer responsible for ensuring the safety of all employees. To ensure safety of women within workplaces, the POSH Act makes it mandatory for the employer of an organization or a company to do the following:
The employer will be considered non-compliant to the POSH Act if they fail to:
In case the employer of an organization violates or attempts to violate any provision under the POSH Act and Rules, a fine of maximum of ₹50,000 will be imposed.
If the employer is convicted for a repeated offence of non-compliance to POSH Act, the penalty will be:
The penalty can be very severe if the case reaches the court. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Madhya Pradesh High Court levied a fine of Rs. 50,000 from a hospital for not having an Internal Complaints Committee in 2019. The court also directed the hospital to pay an amount of Rupees 25 lakhs to the complainant for failing to redress her complaint.
Reference: Global Health Pvt. Ltd. vs District Panchayat on 16 September, 2019
In another judgement, the Madras High Court directed a company in Chennai to pay an amount of Rupees 1.68 crore as damages to an aggrieved woman.
Reference: Ms.G vs Isg Novasoft Technologies Ltd, 2014
One of the mandatory steps for the organization is drafting and disseminating an organizational policy that explains the organization’s stand against sexual harassment. Not having a POSH policy can attract penalty as it is non-compliance to POSH Act.
When drafting an organization’s POSH policy, organizations cannot follow a one-size-fits-all approach as the structure of the organization and their culture vary according to their business domain and industry. However, every organization must take care to include the following in the policy:
When drafting the policy, Employers should make sure that:
Since the POSH Act protects only women against sexual harassment, can the organization’s POSH policy be gender neutral? The answer is yes. Organizations can still have a gender-neutral policy, that allows employee of any gender to file a complaint of sexual harassment with the IC. However, it is to be noted that when there is a sexual harassment complaint from a man or third gender, the powers granted to the Internal Committee will not be applicable. When the Internal Committee handles cases filed by a man or third gender, they can use the powers granted by the organization’s grievance redressal mechanism.
If the organization’s policy is not gender-neutral, the policy can include information about how it handles complaints from other genders. For example, a line that says “Refer to the Code of Conduct policy to know the process of accepting and redressing sexual harassment complaints by other genders” can be included in the policy.
To redress sexual harassment complaints, organizations that have ten or more employees must formulate a team called the Internal Committee (IC).
Note: Internal Committee was formerly called as the “Internal Complaints Committee”. The name change from Internal Complaints Committee to Internal Committee was brought forward in “THE REPEALING AND AMENDING ACT, 2016”.
The amendment indicates that the IC should not only redress sexual harassment complaints but also take measures to prevent harassment at workplace.
The employer constitutes the IC in writing and nominates the following members to the IC:
Member | Description |
---|---|
Presiding Officer | A senior woman employee |
Internal Members | Two or more members committed to the cause of women or who have had experience in social work or have legal knowledge |
External Member | A third-party from an NGO or association committed to the cause of women or a person familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment |
At least half of the IC members should be women.
If your organization is looking for an External Member, you can check out our FREE External Member Directory portal.
If you offer External Member services to organizations,you can register in our External Member Directory portal for FREE.
In such case, the member must step down and the employer will fill the vacancy with an individual who possesses the qualification to be in the position.
Organizations in Telangana and Maharashtra must register their IC with the government.
Telangana Government’s Women and Child Development Department issued a notice that all establishments in the state of Telengana must register their Internal Committee in the department’s portal Shebox.
Similarly, Maharashtra Government’s Women and Child Development Department mandated that all establishments must fill in their details of the IC in the prescribed form and submit it to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate.
External Member is a third-party member of the IC. The External member plays the role of a neutral and impartial person in the IC during inquiries. The External Member should have a good grasp over handling sexual harassment complaints. It is also important that he/she does not have any other relationship with the organization.
The External member performs the following duties:
The External Member is entitled to an allowance for holding the proceedings. This can be discussed by the employer and the External Member. The External Member is also allowed to claim for the reimbursement of the travel costs.
All the members of the Internal Committee can hold their positions for three years from the date of their nomination. The employer will reconstitute the IC after the said period.
An IC member can be disqualified from the position before the completion of three years if he/she:
In such case, the member must step down and the employer will fill the vacancy with an individual who possesses the qualification to be in the position.
POSH Act mandates that employers must create POSH awareness for their employees and employees must be made aware of the provisions of POSH Act. POSH awareness is very important as sexual harassment is a sensitive topic and employees must know what is acceptable and what is not in the workplace. It is important that the following topics are covered in the POSH training:
An employer must be careful about the kind of training they choose for employees. “For a training to have a positive impact on the employees and help in preventing sexual harassment at workplace, ”. it must have the following features:
You can check out our comprehensive POSH Awareness Trainings for staff, managers and IC Members, here.
POSH Act mandates that every organization that has ten or more employees should submit two reports every year:
Section 21(1) of the POSH Act states:
“21. Committee to submit annual report.— (1) The Internal Committee or the Local Committee, as the case may be, shall in each calendar year prepare, in such form and at such time as may be prescribed, an annual report and submit the same to the employer and the District Officer.”
The report should contain the following information:
The POSH Act does not mention a deadline to file the report. However, it is ideal to submit the report for a calendar year by 31st January of the following year. The District Officer will prepare a brief report and forward it to the State Government after receiving reports from organizations and the LC.
Section 22 of the POSH Act speaks about the employer submitting information in annual report.
“22. Employer to include information in annual report.— The employer shall include in its report the number or cases filed, if any, and their disposal under this Act in the annual report of his organisation or where no such report is required to be prepared, intimate such number of cases, if any, to the District Officer.”
This report is the organizational annual report filed by the employer every financial year. If the organization is obligated to file the Directors’ report every year, the employer should include the number of sexual harassment cases filed in a year and their disposal in the report.
In addition to what the POSH Act mandates, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs amended the Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014. The amendment mandates organizations to make a statement in the Director’s Report that the organization is compliant to the POSH Act. This applies to all organizations registered under ROC except small companies and one person companies as defined by Companies Act.
The POSH Act states that every State Government shall notify a District Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate, Collector or Deputy Collector as the District Officer. The District Officer is responsible to discharge their duties under the Act at the district level. Section 20 of the POSH Act lays down the responsibilities of the District Officer:
District Officer also has the following additional responsibilities: