What is POSH Policy (Prevention of Sexual Harassment)?

POSH stands for “Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace” (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal), which came into the Act in 2013. POSH Policy aims to fight against sexual harassment in the Company. In addition, POSH provides an effective complaint and redressal mechanism for any case of Harassment that comes forward.

Also, Policy has helped many women in getting justice against sexual harassment faced in the Company.

This POSH Policy template applies to the employer, full-time and part-time employee. The most helpful thing about the said Policy is that it also protects people indirectly related to the Company, such as clients, visitors, interns, etc.

As per section 4 of the Act, a company with more than 10 employees should have a POSH policy template. This law has established guidelines for addressing the grievances of female employees. It works by the process of constitution of the internal Investigation committee, which looks after providing justice, punishment, interim relief, etc.

Here are examples of behaviour that constitute sexual harassment at the workplace:

Sexual advances, demanding or requesting sexual favours, Eve teasing, forced to meet outside office hours, comments or jokes, Staring at their body, offensive gestures, Unwelcome touching, etc.

Prevention of Sexual Harassment Policy

1. ICC (Internal Complaint Committee):

Along with POSH policy, the Company has to form an Internal complaints committee ( ICC ) for the redressal of sexual harassment complaints (informed by the employee victim).

ICC consists of 4 members, and the majority of them should be women, just as the following.

1. Presiding officer, a women employee working senior.
2. A senior women member committed to the cause of women.
3. Any individual with good legal knowledge and experience in social work.
4. A member of an NGO or with good legal experience related to sexual Harassment.

Internal Complaint Committee is responsible for:

1. Investigating the complaint of the employee victim.
2. Taking suitable actions to respond to the allegations of sexual Harassment.
3. Taking steps and preventing employees from sexual Harassment.

2. Complaints:

1. The victim with a harassment concern should complain, and it should be in a written format.

2. The written complaint should be submitted within 3 months from the date of incidents and a series of incidents happening.

3. An employee can complain through email by disclosing the name, department, division and location.

4. The complaint committee will do an investigation in a manner and create a report which contains the findings & recommendations on the particular action taken to the “Whistle officer” allocated by the Company. Here, the whistle officer, Head-personnel, the administration and the Company will decide based on recommendations of the Complaints Committee.

Corrective measures can take the following actions:

1. Formal apology
2. Counselling
3. Giving a warning is written to the offender and maintaining a copy of it in the employee’s file.
4. Change of project/transfer of victim or either committer.
5. Terminating or suspension of the employee found guilty.

In a situation where the complaint is found to the false, the user will face charges for appropriate disciplinary action by the Management.

3. Confidential

A company knows it’s pretty difficult for the victim to report the harassment, so the organization should encourage the victim to take such steps and keep the matter confidential.

To protect the interest of the victim, accused person, and everyone who reported sexual Harassment must cooperate and keep confidentiality throughout the entire investigation.

Why use a POSH Policy at the Workplace?

Every Company should consider having a POSH policy because it provides a safe working environment for women. It also offers excellent safety from the people coming into touch with the organization’s women.

Also, it helps the law redress all the sexual Harassment faced and filed by the victim.

The Policy also offers an effective complaint with a Redressal mechanism for handling all kinds of Harassment.

At the same place, effective compliance with POSH Policy eliminates the fear and discomfort of the employees by increasing employee productivity, making them feel safe and saving the organizations from other consequences associated with sexual Harassment.

A workspace that experiences much sexual Harassment suffers from high employee turnovers; hence having a POSH policy in your organization is worth it.