FAQs on POSH Act

1. When was the Sexual harassment of women at workplace (prevention, prohibition & redressal) Act 2013 passed?

The Ministry of Law & Justice has passed the Act on 22nd April 2013. The Rules were passed on 9th December 2013.

2. What are the objectives of the said Act?

    This Act is to provide

• Protection against sexual harassment of women at workplace.
• Prevention.
• Redressal of complaints of sexual harassment.

3. What is sexual harassment?

The Act in its Section 2n defines sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behavior (whether directly or by implication), namely

• Physical contact and advances, or
• A demand or request for sexual favours, or
• Making sexually coloured remarks, or
• Showing pornography, or
• Any other unwelcome physical, verbal, non verbal conduct of sexual nature.

Section 3 (2) of the Act further elaborates that if any of the following circumstances occurs or is present in relation to or connected with any act or behavior of sexual harassment among other circumstances, it may amount to sexual harassment-

• Implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in her employment, or
• Implied or explicit threat of detrimental treatment in her employment, or
• Implied or explicit threat about her present or future employment status, or
• Interference with her work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment for her, or
• Humiliating treatment likely to affect her health or safety. 

4. Who does the Act apply to? 

Applies to an “aggrieved woman".

According to the Act (Section 2a) aggrieved woman means 

>>In relation to a workplace, a woman of any age whether employed or not, who alleges to have been subjected to any act of sexual harassment by the respondent.

>>In relation to a dwelling place or house, a woman of any age who is employed in such a dwelling or house (like a domestic worker).

5. Is Posh mandatory?

Yes. It is.

6. What are the three major elements of posh act?

• Prohibition
• Prevention
• Redress

7. Who are all covered in posh?

POSH Act provides that every employer with more than 10 employees must constitute an Internal Committee (IC) within the organization to handle complaints of Sexual Harassment. Both organized and unorganized sectors, are covered by this Act even Government has also covered its offices and officers,  and non-compliance of any directives will lead to consequences.

6. What is workplace according to the Act?

Workplace includes (Section 2o) 

Any department, organization, undertaking, establishment, enterprise, institution, office, branch or unit which is established, owned, controlled or wholly or substantially financed by funds provided directly or indirectly by the appropriate Government or the local authority or a Government company or a corporation or a cooperative society.

Any private sector organisation or a private venture, undertaking, enterprise, institution, establishment, society, trust, non governmental organization, unit or service provider carrying on commercial , professional, vocational, educational, entertainment, industrial, health services or financial activities including production, supply, sale, distribution or service

Hospital or nursing homes

Any sports institute, stadium, sports complex or competition or games venue, whether residential or not used for training, sports or other activities relating to it

Any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment including transportation provided by the employer for undertaking such journey

A dwelling or a house

6. Whether POSH is applicable in an Organisation with no women also?

Yes, there is no exemption given to any organisation/ entity under the Act. Any organization having more than 10 workers, is required to have a Internal Complaints Committee as per the Act.

7. Do we have to form a Committee at all the workplace?

Yes. In the words of Section 4 of the Act, where the offices or administrative units of the workplace are located at different places or divisional or sub-divisional level, the Internal Committee shall be constituted at all administrative units or offices.

8. Is POSH training mandatory?

Creating awareness among the employees about prevention of sexual harassment of women is mandated by the POSH act. That makes POSH training mandatory.

9. What is POSH awareness?

The POSH awareness course explains about the POSH Act 2013 and explains what constitutes sexual harassment. It promotes the awareness to prevent harassment of women at workplace.

10. What is Quid Pro Quo harassment?

Quid Pro Quo means consideration, favors  or anything seeking in return of something done/to be done.

Quid Pro Quo harassment occurs when a person trades, or tries to trade, job benefits for sexual favors. It therefore occurs between an employee and someone with authority, like a supervisor, who has the ability to grant or with hold job benefits.

11. Who are the members of the Internal Complaint Committee?

The Internal Complaints Committee shall constitute of the following members (Section 4(2)a, b and c of the Act) :

# Presiding Officer : One : a woman employed at a senior level at workplace from amongst employees (in case a senior level women employee is not available, the Presiding officer shall be nominated from the other offices or administrative units of the workplace. In case the other offices or administrative units of the workplace do not have a senior level woman employee, the Presiding officer shall be nominated from any other workplace of the same employer or other dept or organization).

# Members : not less than two : from employees preferably committed to the cause of women or who have experience in social work or have a legal knowledge 

# Member : One : from amongst non governmental organizations or associations committed to the cause of women or a person familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment.

# At least one half of the total members shall be women. 

quick snippets:

Presiding Officer:  Woman+ Senior Level +Amongst Employees

One Member: from NGO for cause of women or familiar to issues relation to SH.

Two Members: amongst employees preferably committed to the cause of women or who have had experience in social work or have legal knowledge;

Further At least half of the member should be women

12. How to form a committee where there is no women in the organisation?

For forming a committee, In case a senior level woman employee is not available, the Presiding Officer shall be nominated from other offices or administrative units of the workplace. Further that in case the other offices or administrative units of the workplace do not have a senior level woman employee, the Presiding Officer shall be nominated from any other workplace of the same employer or other department or organisation.

13. What is the tenure of the members of the Internal Complaint Committee?

The Presiding Officer and every members of the Internal Committee shall hold office for a period not exceeding three years from the date of nomination as member. (Section 4 (3) of the Act). 

14. Which members of the Internal Complaint Committee will be paid fees or allowances, why and how much?

Only those member which were appointed from amongst the non governmental organizations or associations shall be paid fees or allowances for holding the proceedings of the Internal Committee. (Section 4(4) of the Act).

Section 3 of the Rules elaborates that the member appointed from amongst the non government organizations shall be entitled to an allowance of Rs 200 per day for holding the proceedings of the Internal Committee. Reimbursement of travel cost incurred in travelling by train in 3rd AC or AC bus and auto rickshaw or taxi or the actual amount spent by him/her, which ever is less will also be done.

15. Whether the Organisation is liable for all the misconduct or harassment happened even after the working hours?

The government had tried to frame a vast picture of this act. Therefore even if the harassment takes place at anywhere among the person somehow connected with the workplace after or before working hours, it would tantamount to sexual harassment at workplace.

Example: Suppose some office colleagues went to a outing like any mountainous place for vacation. At that location one office employee harassed a female colleague. As the place is not office or workplace of business. Will it be covered. Answer is YES, it will be covered.

Why, because the man and women was connected to each other only because of the single reason that they work together in an office , they both are colleague. So this connection is most important factor in the given to institute a complaint by the girl under POSH, but other options are also available for her.

16. How to decide whether an act is under the purview of sexual harassment or not?

Definition says: sexual harassment includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behaviour (whether directly or by implication) namely:— (i) physical contact and advances; or (ii) a demand or request for sexual favours; or (iii) making sexually coloured remarks; or (iv) showing pornography; or (v) any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature;

Therefore, the major to elements are UNWELCOMED ACT and SEXUAL NATURE. These two are the litmus test for checking the nature of harassment.

17. What is the Procedure for filling complaint?

A complaint of sexual harassment can be filed within a time limit of 3 months which may be extended to another 3 months if the woman can prove that grave circumstances prevented her from doing the same.

18. Can a Company adopt informal mode of Conciliation?

Yes. Referring to Section 10(1) of the Act before initiating an inquiry committee at the request of the aggrieved woman take steps to settle the matter between her and the respondent through conciliation. However, no monetary settlement shall be made as a basis of conciliation.

19. What if the complaint filed turn out to be malicious?

Committee may recommend to the employer or the District Officer, as the case may be, to take action against the woman or the person who has made the complaint in accordance with the provisions of the service rules applicable to her or him or where no such service rules exist, in such manner as may be prescribed.

A mere inability to substantiate a complaint or provide adequate proof need not attract action against the complainant as false or malicious.

20. What are the quick procedure of redressing the matter? 

– Submission of complaint in writing within three months of the incident or last alleged incident in case of chain of incidents

– Planning and preparation of enquiry by the Committee

– Adopting an Informal Mode of resolving as per choice of the aggrieved

– Choosing formal route (in case the aggrieved opts)

– Interviewing the Aggrieved Person, respondent & Witnesses

– Creating a proper records and file of the statements

– Analysing the statements

– Conclusion

– Reporting to the Employer with recommendation

21. What as the interim steps the committee can recommend?

On written request of the aggrieved, the committee may recommend the employer to (a) transfer the aggrieved woman or the respondent to any other workplace; or (b) grant leave to the aggrieved woman up to a period of three months; or (c) grant such other relief to the aggrieved woman a may be prescribed.

The leave granted to the aggrieved woman under this section shall be in addition to the leave she would be otherwise entitled.

22. What about the confidentiality of Complaint? 

The Act prohibits disclosure of the identity and addresses of the parties i.e aggrieved woman, respondent and witnesses. However, information regarding the justice secured to any victim of sexual harassment under this Act without disclosing the identity can be disseminated.

23. Is there any time limit for submission of final report?

An inquiry must be completed within 90 days and a final report submitted within ten days thereafter. Such report will also be made available to the concerned parties.

The Employer or District Officer is obliged to act on the recommendations within 60 days.

Advanced Level FAQ on POSH Link