The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act - Introduction

Sexual Harassment at the Workplace is an issue that every organisation needs to address. A 2010 survey in India’s outsourcing and information technology industry found that 88% women employees have faced sexual harassment at work. According to another survey, one in every five employees working at different levels at various workplaces has been subjected to sexual harassment.

While there are provisions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to address sexual harassment, not all instances of sexual harassment can be covered in IPC. The sexual harassment cases are barely taken to employers or law agencies, because women fear adversely affecting their career and work environment, especially when a senior official is involved.

In 1997, the Supreme Court laid down guidelines in a judgement known as the Vishaka Case. Sadly, those guidelines were never followed strictly either by state organisations or by private organisations. Organisations had a different stance on the guidelines, and the need to address the issue at employer level became extremely important.

In April 2013, the Parliament passed the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, which has stronger enforcement mechanism. The act imposes certain obligations on all employers, to ensure prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace. Employers are required to constitute an Internal Complains Committee (ICC) to deal with cases of sexual harassment at work. Any woman facing sexual harassment can approach the ICC, which is empowered to award certain solutions to the woman.

Features of the Act

1) The Act defines sexual harassment at the workplace and creates a mechanism for redressal of complaints. It also provides safeguards against false or malicious charges.

2) The definition of “aggrieved woman” who will get protection under the Act is extremely wide to cover all women, irrespective of her age or employment status, whether in the organised or unorganised sectors, public or private, and covers clients, customers and domestic workers as well.

3) While the “workplace” in the Vishaka Guidelines is confined to the traditional office set-up where there is a clear employer-employee relationship, the Act goes much further to include organisations, department, office, branch unit etc. in the public and private sector, organised and unorganised, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, sports institutes, stadiums, sports complex and any place visited by the employee during the course of employment, including transportation.

4) The Committee is required to complete the inquiry within a time period of 90 days. On completion of the inquiry, the report will be sent to the employer or the District Officer, as the case may be; they are mandated to take action on the report within 60 days.

5) Every employer is required to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee at each office or branch with 10 or more employees. The District Officer is required to constitute a Local Complaints Committee at each district, and--if required--at the block level.

6) The Complaints Committees have the powers of civil courts for gathering evidence.

7) The Complaints Committees are required to provide for conciliation before initiating an inquiry, if requested by the complainant.

8) Penalties have been prescribed for employers. Non-compliance with the provisions of the Act shall be punishable with a fine of up to Rs 50,000. Repeated violations may lead to higher penalties and cancellation of licence or registration to conduct business

Manoj Mitta of the Times of India complained that the Bill does not protect men, saying it "is based on the premise that only female employees needed to be safeguarded." 

Nishith Desai Associates, a law group, wrote a detailed analysis that included concerns about the role of the employer in sexual harassment cases. They called out the fact that there is no stipulated liability for employers in cases of employee-to-employee harassment, something upheld in many other countries. They also viewed the provision that employers are obligated to address grievances in a timely manner at the workplace as problematic because of potentially uncooperative employees. 

To ascertain if a woman has undergone sexual harassment, certain checks need to be undertaken. More on that in the follow-up post. 

Source -  http://wcd.nic.in/wcdact/womenactsex.pdf

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