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Gayatri (Law Student)     21 April 2023

Icc under posh at workplace

POSH Act 2013,  requires all companies to by written order constitute a internal compliance committee (ICC) for redressal of cases. My query is based on the same.

Q1. What if the company has a POSH and Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Police, but only in name. Is there any way by which we can demand information on the members or the ICC ? Like RTI? 

Q2.In cases where there are no cases of s*xual harassment, does there still lie a statutory duty on a  private company to send a Annual Report to the District Officer.

Q3. (Cont. from Q2)  What is a company has not been sending Annual Reports to Local Committee(LC), is there any penalty for same?  

Q4. What are the maximum number of members that can be in an ICC, minimum being 4.



Learning

 5 Replies

P. Venu (Advocate)     21 April 2023

You may bring matters to the notice of the District Officer and the District Committee concerned.

1 Like

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     22 April 2023

Under the POSH Act, an employer is legally required to comply with certain statutory requirements. One of these is the constitution of an Internal Complaints Committee ("ICC"), a body envisaged to receive complaints on s*xual harassment at the workplace from an aggrieved woman, as well as to inquire into and make recommendations to the employer on the action required pursuant to its inquiry of such complaint made.

Any establishment employing ten or more employees is required to constitute an ICC by an order in writing by the employer

In this regard, it must be noted that the definition of employee under the POSH Act is broad, and encompasses persons employed on a temporary, ad hoc or daily wage basis, and includes apprentices, trainees, volunteers and persons employed at a workplace through an agent or contractor. The term employer has also been defined in the context of governmental organizations, private sector organizations and households. With regard to the private sector, an employer is understood to mean any person responsible for the management, supervision and control of the workplace, with a further clarification that the person, board or committee responsible for formulation and administration of the policies of an organization would be included under the ambit of 'management'.

With a view to track the implementation of such statutory requirement and to ensure that the issue is brought to the attention of the board of directors of companies, the Ministry of Women and Child Development made certain recommendations to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs with regard to corporate reporting requirements. Pursuant to such recommendations, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs notified the Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2018 ("Companies Rules"), issued under Section 134 of the Companies Act, 2013 in order to ensure safe workplaces for women in the private sector. With effect from July 31, 2018, the Companies Rules were amended to include the following mandatory disclosure in the board's report of every company:

"A statement that the Company has complied with provisions relating to the constitution of Internal Complaints Committee under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013".

Accordingly, as per the amended Companies Rules, the above statement (on the status of the company's compliance with the requirement to constitute an ICC under the POSH Act) is required to be included in the directors' responsibility statement, which forms a part of the company's annual report.

 

1 Like

Sudhir Kumar, Advocate (Advocate)     25 April 2023

actually you have not explained any problem and have only set question paper for examination.

Gayatri (Law Student)     25 April 2023

Yes there is no problem, I just wanted to solidfy my learning on POSH and understand it for my future use. 
Thank you for taking out time to reply. 
 

Sudhir Kumar, Advocate (Advocate)     04 May 2023

better read the act thoroughly.


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