Introduction

80% businesses in India are unable to comply with the sexual harassment laws due to lack of expert assistance.

Several businesses are compliant at a formal level - they have anti-sexual harassment prevention policies, an internal complaints committee and annual compliance processes set on paper, but several loose ends and loopholes remain open. Back in 2013, this was sufficient. It took a couple of years till employees started to file the first few complaints.

This may have been sufficient in 2013, but not in 2019. In 2019, there has been a 20% rise in sexual harassment complaints filed.

Moving a little back in time, in 2017, a public interest litigation was filed impleading the Centre and various states regarding non-implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (the POSH Act), with case number WP (C) 1224/2017.

In some states, action is taken against defaulting companies under the state’s Shops and Establishments Acts, which contain references to the POSH Act.

In some states like Karnataka, there’s an incentive for compliance with sexual harassment laws. The state-level amendment of Industrial Disputes (Standing Orders) Act provides an exception from compliance with the Standing Orders Act for technology-related companies if they have an ICC in place.

Since 2018, the Companies Act also requires disclosures pertaining to sexual harassment incidents in the director’s statement annexed to the annual report.

Effective systems are needed for implementation. Incomplete or patchy implementation of the law hampers workplace safety, productivity and creates reputational risks for organizations. Instances of sexual harassment which surfaced during #metoo campaign, Uber, TERI, AIB and several other examples show that dysfunctional or absent internal systems are equivalent to a landmine for a brand’s reputation.

Further, sexual harassment allegations have led to the destruction of hard-earned reputations and well-built careers of many successful people. Managing directors, CEOs and co-founders have had to resign in the midst of sexual harassment controversies.

Effective and functional internal systems pursuant to the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 or the POSH Act works as a very powerful shield not only against legal responsibility but also against devastating reputational effects, as the organization can then distance itself from a specific individual’s actions and demonstrate that its internal machinery is adequately handling the situation.

In addition to the legal and reputational risks, it’s important that organisations imbibe a culture where women can feel safe and both genders can work together in harmony. Even a single instance of sexual harassment can leave a woman jarred and impact her productivity. This is why it is essential that employees be sensitised about sexual harassment. While the male workforce can be briefed about what conduct is illegal or even unbecoming, women can be briefed on how not to take unintentional gestures, which are a part of the existing organisation culture too hard.

The eligibility bar for compliance is set low - organizations with more than 10 people need to comply with the full range of requirements. Even organizations with less than 10 people need to have some mechanisms in place.

For large organizations with multiple locations, the implementation becomes very complex.

Thus, implementation for large companies, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), technology startups which are scaling up, companies in the construction sector, educational institutions and government organizations will all look very different.

For example, large companies, which are highly process-oriented need elaborate standard operating procedures (SOPs) to govern the functioning of internal complaints committee or ICCs in various locations. These elaborate procedures are necessary to fill in the gaps in the legal provisions, but they must operate within the overall legal framework.

There is room for innovation and customizing the implementation to address an organization’s needs. This is why organizations need to engage experts professionally to assist them with implementation.

Before we proceed, let us review the challenges faced by organizations currently.

Challenges faced by organizations in implementation

Challenges around capacity-building of ICCs

• Imparting training on decision-making
• How to conduct inquiry and the steps to be taken to ensure the principles of natural justice are observed 
• What kinds of evidence to summon and how to treat such evidence 
• How to draft various kinds of notices and documents
• How to write recommendations
• Arriving at a coherent stance on the types of interim remedies that can be awarded to complainant and defendant in various situations
• Types of punishments which must be recommended in different situations
• How and when to assist a complainant with approaching the police
• How to assist a complainant in filing a complaint with the ICC of another organization
• How and when to assist the parties in arriving at a conciliation
• Actions to be taken against those who disobey the ICC’s summons
• How to maintain case files and records of different kinds of proceedings
• How to ensure confidentiality is maintained 
• What information is to be sent to management for annual compliance
• How to initiate action against false complaints 
• Types of instructions to be provided to the management so that recommendations are implemented
• How to handle appeals against its decisions
• What to do when an ICC member is accused 
• What to do when the promoter or CEO is accused
• How to ensure coordination between ICCs at different locations
• What to do in locations where the district officer is not appointed

Challenges in conducting sensitization of the workforce 

• How to define which acts are a part of the organisation culture
• Finding legitimate experts to sensitize employees and train Complaints Committees 
• Ensuring that male workforce is not antagonized 
• How to ensure that the complainant feels safe 
• How to ensure that the law is not misused 
• Sensitization on defending oneself against a complaint 
• How to ensure doubts are cleared on a continuous basis, after completion of offline trainings 
• How to ensure 100% of the workforce is sensitized 
• Taking a decision on the training format, that is, whether it should be an offline training, an online one or a hybrid model, to ensure 100% accessibility and retention by the workforce 
• How to customize the sensitization content depending on the nature of the workplace, and delivery of the content in regional languages 
• How to select appropriate technology, vendors, experts and technological tools for the sensitization 
• How to keep records of employee participation, certification and updates 
• How to ensure employees can approach experts if they have doubts 
• Ensuring that the training is contextually relevant to employees in different locations and contexts. For example, training for factory-workers may be different from training for the employees at the corporate office from contract-workers who are say, responsibility for maintenance of the facility premises at the office. In some locations, the training may have to be conducted in a regional language.
• Ensuring that employees take out the time to participate in the training and attempt the tests
• Briefing the management team and ICC on the formulation of the organization’s stand on the areas where the law is silent or has gaps, and assisting them in formulating an organizational stance where there is a gap.

Challenges in customization of policies

• Ensuring policies do not involve a blind copy-paste of statutory provisions
• Creation and implementation of a gender-neutral framework (if needed)
• Applicability of policies to work-related interactions between colleagues outside office (i.e. quasi-workplace scenarios)
• Customization of clauses in policies for schools, sales offices, off-site workers, journalists, etc.
• Ensuring periodic upgrades to policies
• Specification of mechanisms and procedures to deal with false complaints (which does not have the side-effect of unreported complaints)

Some other challenges

• How to minimize scenarios of unreported complaints
• How to ensure functional ICCs in multiple locations
• How to ensure posters and literature about anti-sexual harassment
• How to aggregate information accurately at the head office for the purpose of reporting
• How to ensure that confidentiality is not breached by the organization (by non-ICC members)
• We have only listed down some of the important challenges. The actual list is much longer.

Role and skill-sets of experts for legal implementation

Although the external expert is accorded a very specific role to perform with respect to organization’s ICC under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, in practice, experts and consultants are expected to conceptualize and lead all implementation initiatives on behalf of the employer within the organization.

In light of the challenges mentioned above, experts are required to acquire a variety of skill-sets, as explained below.

Legal and decision-making skills

• Legal skills required extend far beyond knowledge of the POSH Act and the Rules alone. One needs to know about relevant aspects of Industrial Employment (Standing Orders Act), Shops and Establishments Act (in specific states) and the Companies Act.
• In certain cases, due to the gaps in the law, one may be required to make intelligent interpretations to effectively apply the legal provisions in practical scenarios.
• One must also know about natural justice requirements, drafting of various kinds of notices, orders, orders and evidence-related procedures.
• In addition, decision-making skills require one to arrive at a judgment based on the available facts and circumstances and appreciation of evidence, which are not imparted to lawyers as a part of their curriculum, or even in practice, unless they have been a judge or members of a tribunal or a disciplinary committee.
• In fact, when practising lawyers represent clients before a court or tribunal in a legal proceeding, they develop their skills to present their clients’ case in the best possible manner. It is very different from arriving at a decision based on facts, evidence and arguments of two sides.

Administrative and secretarial skills

The following are examples of administrative tasks involved:

• Maintaining records of trainings and refresher courses conducted 
• Maintaining lists of employees who have undergone training and those who have not
• Liaison with the management team, ICC and other stakeholders for implementation of ICC’s recommendations and other purposes
• Creating technical rules and systems to ensure that confidentiality is not breached
• Ensuring data for annual compliance under POSH Act, 2013, the Companies Act, 2013 (and any other laws, where applicable) is accurately maintained at various locations and accurately compiled for the purposes of filing and disclosure
• Maintenance of records of ICC proceedings and case files

Training skills

Execution of ICC training and organization-wide workforce training is beset with a number of challenges, as explained above. A trainer is required to:

• Possess the ability to deliver complex concepts and challenges in a simple manner
• Address preconceived societal biases and notions
• Think of everyday examples so that members of the workforce, who are not trained in law, can relate to the training
• Have the capacity to include and onboard dissenters into the conversation so that they are engaged,
• Explain the organization’s stance with clarity,
• Be creative and thoughtful and think independently to address new doubts which arise on the spot
• Relay open or grey issues back to the organization for resolution, so that the management team can take a call and communicate an updated stance to employees 
• Training of internal members and Chairperson of the ICC requires a very nuanced practical understanding of concepts. Your stance and interpretation of the law should be balanced and fair and in the organization’s interest. You cannot take on the role of an activist, and you cannot be a misandrist. There are competing considerations that need to be managed. Further, there are multiple ICCs in a large organization, so the exercise can be more complex.

Interpersonal and communication skills

Effective communication is necessary to be undertaken on a continuous basis through various kinds of modes - notices, creative posters, emails, handbooks, etc. is at the heart of effective implementation. Communication is required to align various stakeholders, including management, external vendors and employees to the organization’s stance. There will be frequently edits and upgrades to the organizational policies or training programs, which will also require a clear intimation to the workforce about the change and its implications for them. This requires strong communication skills. Appropriate communication skills are necessary for effective drafting of various summons and notices to conduct the inquiry and in writing reasoned decisions. Several trained lawyers who are highly knowledgeable also do not have developed written communication skills, as a result of which their writing turns out to be ambiguous. Practice in this regard can help in fine-tuning one’s effectiveness.

Negotiation and business skills

Ultimately, you will need to identify and negotiate your terms of engagement as an expert, enter into a contractual agreement and manage your relationship with multiple clients. From time to time, you will innovate, identify new upgrades to your services and pitch them to your clients, and then manage the delivery of services when you receive a mandate. As you grow, you might decide to perform only niche work or build up a team to perform a varied portfolio of assignments in this area. Whatever you do, you will need to ensure you are out there in the market, and that you are consistent with delivery. You will need to manage both existing and new clients well. Performance of this consistently and repetition of this process requires negotiation and business skills.

Why would organizations consider engaging you?

Given the above challenges and the skills required of an expert, organizations prefer not to engage theoretical experts, or those who have an activist or misandrist mindset. Engaging a regular corporate lawyer may not be sufficient for the job.

Instead, they value a professional who can enable them to adequately implement the law and adequately deal with the practical challenges above. Therefore, experts in this area are highly sought after and well-paid.

Even large corporate law firms prefer to engage experts for their own internal trainings.

Under the POSH Act, other than representatives for NGOs or organizations committed to the cause of women, any person who is familiar with issues pertaining to sexual harassment can be engaged as an external member on ICCs. Apart from familiarity with issues pertaining to sexual harassment, there are no technical qualifications necessary to be engaged as an external member.

Thus, someone who is trained on issues pertaining to sexual harassment would be well-positioned to take on the role of an expert. Organizations prefer to engage an external member who, in addition to the statutory functions, can also assist in discharging the employer’s responsibilities, such as conducting sensitizations, trainings, creation of other communications systems, revision and upgrades to policies, etc. Even if such a person cannot discharge all the functions, such an expert is the single point of contact for engaging other vendors.

Organizations also encourage the development of these skill-sets in-house, and accordingly enrol many of their Chairpersons or other members of the ICC to acquire such training.

This course is offered by India's leading legal education company and taught by top industry experts who have assisted Fortune 500 companies, large Indian companies and government departments with legal compliance, filed numerous RTIs with state governments and a public interest litigation at the Supreme Court.

It will give you unmatched skills to lead the initiative to implement anti-sexual harassment practices under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, both as a member or Chairperson of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) or an external expert.

If you are an HR professional, company secretary or in-house lawyer, feel free to request your organization to enrol you.

Who should take this course

• HR Professionals - The HR team has the primary responsibility to take initiatives to implement the POSH Act, 2013. This includes appointing external experts to the internal complaints committee, ensuring compliance with legal requirements, creating a safe workplace environment, managing learning and development initiatives and sensitizations for employees, audits, etc. In large organizations, this assumes huge operational complexity, and HR managers and professionals are responsible for spearheading such initiatives.
• Corporate Trainers or Consultants - Corporate trainers are likely to be consulted by companies for assistance and services on implementation of the POSH Act. Further, the POSH Act specifically requires companies to conduct organization-wide sensitizations for employees and consultants and ICC trainings. Corporate trainers, who already have expertise in training different groups of employees, can use insights from this course to expand the portfolio of training and advisory services offered. 
• CA, CS or other compliance consultants - Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and other compliance consultants, such as labour law compliance consultants have pre-existing clients to whom they provide compliance-related services, audits and other services. There is a rewarding possibility of adding an extra skill to your existing list of offerings. MNC clients and large Indian companies pay very well for sexual harassment related compliances. Your existing clients will be more comfortable asking you to handle this rather than going to a new expert they don't even know. 
• In-house counsels - When a company wants the highest level of attention and expertise on any legal issue, and across-the-board implementation as a key ally to the business teams, they approach in-house lawyers. Do you want to acquire above average skills and knowledge that will set you apart from the average lawyer? This course will teach you skills you will not find in statute books. 

Learn straight from the lawyers who argued landmark cases, partners of top law firms and General Counsels of top notch MNCs.

What is the career potential after doing this course

After pursuing this course you will have the skills to perform the following roles:

• Be a member or chairperson of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of your company
• Be an external member on another company’s ICC
• Start a full-fledged consultancy vertical as an expert 
• Perform anti-sexual harassment trainings 
• If you are an independent lawyer, CS or a CA, you can add services around anti-sexual harassment compliance, training and strategy to your existing portfolio of services and offer them to your current and new clients

Potential Employers

Businesses operating in any of the below industries

What is unique about this course

• The course is not limited to a provision-by-provision study of the POSH Act and Rules, but focuses on numerous implementation-related and practical challenges. As mentioned earlier, formal compliance is not sufficient and many practical considerations need to be kept in mind for different kinds of organizations.
• The course trains you on different kinds of actual work that is required to be performed by experts and ICC members (including the chairperson). 
• You will actually perform different tasks, including drafting decisions, notices, summons and customization of policies, preparation of presentations and scripts for sensitizations. 
• The course is tough and intensive, you will not be awarded the certificate unless you complete all the exercises. You need to spend 8-10 hours per week on this course. 
• You will get personal attention and coaching from the trainer, and get individual feedback on the quality of work you produce from our evaluators. 
• You will be writing an article every month and with our guidance publish the same either on iPleaders blog or various other industry publications. 
• We will provide you a free course on professional networking, CV writing, interview skills and client development. 
• After completing the course, you will be able to handle work for other clients as an external expert or your own company. You will have an idea of how to enter into retainer arrangements and price your services. 

Training Methodology

Online 24/7 access

Access study materials via our online portal & via our anroid & iOS apps.

Hard Copy Study Material

You will receive hard copy study material delivered to your address.

Practical Exercises

Two practical exercises every week, each followed by written feedback.

Live Online Classes

Live online classes based on exercises, allowing questions and feedback.

Convenient Class timings

Classes held after work hours, typically on Sundays or after 8 PM on weekdays.

Live Doubt Clearing

Live doubt clearing for support and one-on-one sessions with mentors.

Certification

This course is recognized by the National Skill Development Corporation, a PPP under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the Government of India. You will receive a certificate cobranded by NSDC and Skill India on successful completion.

This is how the certificate from NSDC and Skill India will look as per the current applicable format (may change as per the approval authorities):

What will you learn

• Develop expertise on practical issues under Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 or POSH Act
• Learn how to implement the compliance process for a large organization having a diverse workforce and multiple offices, shops or factories in different locations across India 
• Master how to guide CEOs and the management team, the ICC and the workforce with implementation 
• Apply a gender-neutral framework to deal with sexual harassment at the workplace 
• Learn the end-to-end decision-making and documentation process to be observed by ICCs, and train your own or ICCs of other organizations on it 
• Understand key components of conducting sensitization for different categories of employees, irrespective of language, location or type of workplace (factory, shop floor, construction site, etc.) 
• Assist organizations in effectively dealing with false complaints 
• Learn how to onboard men in the anti-sexual harassment compliance initiative despite the law according protection only to women 
• Learn how to engage with external experts (for in-house HR managers) 
• Learn how to develop a consulting practice where you assist organizations as an external expert or trainer 

Specific Learning Objectives

You will acquire insights on the following:

• Ensure that employees feel safe to report instances of sexual harassment and minimize risk of reputational damage through leakage of scandalous stories to media
• Create in-depth management information systems so that non-compliance or wrongdoing at the ground-level does not go undetected by the head office 
• Learn how to customize anti-sexual harassment policies of different kinds of organizations depending on the nature of the workplace (e.g. school or university, shopfloor, mall, office, etc.) 
• Create gender-neutral frameworks for implementation of the law wherever needed 
• Learn the procedure for amendment of standing orders, that is, with respect to workmen in a factory 
• Ensure that Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs) are functional and effective 
• Negotiate terms of engagement to provide services as an external expert 
• Effectively supervise the work of external experts 
• Train ICCs in complaint-handling processes, evidence collection and decision-making 
• Ensure that the ICC operates free from bias and observes the rules of natural justice 
• Draft different kinds of documents as a member (internal or external) of the ICC, that is, summons, orders, recommendations, etc. 
• Ensure that interim and final punishment awarded by the ICC are in accordance with law and organizational objectives and do not unnecessarily disrupt work 
• Ensure that ICC maintains appropriate documentation and records of each case and its own meetings and other proceedings 
• Ensure that ICCs have a uniform code of operation in organizations which have multiple ICCs 
• Take effective action if the ICC’s directions or notices are violated 
• Create effective systems to ensure timely implementation of ICC’s recommendations by the organization’s management team 
• Train ICCs on when to refer cases to police or Local Complaints Committees (LCCs) 
• Ensure confidentiality requirements are legally met in the process of determination and implementation of ICC’s recommendations 
• Equip ICCs to deal effectively with false complaints 
• Train employees on how to defend malicious cases 
• Learn how to effectively onboard and empower male employees in implementation of the law 
• Lead implementation initiatives in large organizations either as an in-house member or an external expert 
• Conduct sensitizations effectively in different locations, such as the factory-floor, with off-site consultants and vendors and employees in office 
• Ensure that prohibition of sexual harassment in contractual documents and internal policies is made binding as required under the POSH Act 
• Ensure that employees are adequately informed about the consequences of sexual harassment at work 
• Identify when complaints can be settled through conciliation and when to proceed with inquiry proceedings 
• Ensure that all paperwork and compliance in connection with anti-sexual harassment laws under the POSH Act and under the Companies Act is in order 
• Effectively conduct ant-sexual harassment audits, both internally and as an external expert 
• Ensure that the organization’s stance on the issue continuously improves over time through your intervention and coordination with the management, ICC and the workforce 

List of Weekly Exercises

• Draft and customize the anti-sexual harassment policy of your organization. Identify how it would be different if the organization owned a mall, or a school, or in a factory. Also create a gender-neutral version.
• Implement a system to comply with confidentiality requirements under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. 
• Prepare a compliance checklist with a management information system for your management team (where the organization has offices/ shops and factories in multiple locations), constitute ICCs and create plan out an organization-wide sensitization initiative. 
• Prepare an end-to-end step-chart of the hearing and decision-making process. Also prepare an index of records to be maintained by ICC during and before a hearing after a complainant has approached. 
• Draft an anti-sexual harassment notice and posters for your workplace. 
• Identify appropriate course of action for an ICC in respect of multiple forms of complaints. Identify the scenarios when ICC must take cognizance, when it must not, and when it must forward complainants to the police. 
• Draft and serve a summons to the respondent to submit a response and attend ICC proceedings. Customise it for other witnesses. Identify the course of action to be adopted by the ICC if the respondent/ witness does not attend the ICC proceedings.
• Identify the evidence needed by ICC to establish/ disprove the allegations specified in a sexual harassment complaint.
• Draft a settlement agreement between the complainant and the respondent pursuant to conciliation efforts by the ICC
• Draft an appropriate interim order of the ICC in an anti-sexual harassment complaint, keeping in mind legal requrements and organizational interest.
• Perform scenario-based exercises to identify when the requirements for natural justice were met and when they were not. Also identify conflicts of interest and propose an alternate course of action in such situations.
• Write down the best practices for all ICCs in your organization to ensure that natural justice requirements are met.
• Identify essentials of a valid ICC meeting and prepare minutes of proceedings
• Draft a decision of the ICC with recommendations to employer (includes how to write a reasoned decision, appreciation of evidence, identification of appropriate recommendations, etc.) 
• Draft the annual report of ICC to employer and district officer, and prepare information to be sent to assist in the preparation of Directors’ Report under Companies Act
• Draft and negotiate terms of engagement with an external member
• Prepare a record of examination of witnesses for ICC proceedings
• Identify the key information and resources which must be available with ICC to assist employees in filing FIRs and assist an employee in filing an FIR
• Implement mechanisms to minimise risk of false complaints and identify when the ICC would take action for filing a false complaint
• Exercises on Review of Employee Handbook for POSH Compliance and Scope of POSH Act in Practical Scenarios 
• Exercises on Receipt of complaints and the way forward: Identify whether the complainant is eligible
• Exercises on “Definition of sexual harassment at workplace”
• Exercises on Sensitization and Training of Employees under POSH Act
• Exercises on Filing an Anti-Sexual Harassment Complaint
• Exercises on ICC Inquiry Procedure: Preliminary Investigation by ICC, Conciliation Process, Interim Relief and Conducting the Main Inquiry
• Exercises on Drafting of Consultancy Agreement and Proposal

There will be 3 writing assignments (i.e. one per month).

How the Certificate looks

How the Certificate looks

Verifiable Certificate

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What kind of recruitment and placement support will I get?

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How will you clear my doubts and help me if I am struggling to understand or learn a concept?

• In our live classes, you can ask questions, share your screen, receive personal feedback, and have your doubts cleared.
• If you need more help after getting feedback on an assignment or want career advice, you can schedule a private one-on-one call. Our evaluators and mentors are here to assist you and give you advice that's tailored to your needs.