Capacity Building Program on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013
The program is designed and executed by UNGENDER, an advisory firm on gender laws compliance.
Introduction to Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013
India's first piece of legislation to combat Sexual Harassment at Workplace. The success or failure of a legislation is not decided merely by how airtight the law may look on paper or the intentions with which it has been drafted. Once passed, it is the implementation of the law that decides whether the law has actually achieved all that it aims to or not. The same holds good for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. No matter how many bodies are created for the appropriate implementation of the Act, in the end, it is dependent on whether these bodies are made up of the appropriate and qualified people.
The Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) is an extremely vital body which is required to be constituted by organizations and employers when they have more than 10 employees working in a workplace. This has been a compulsory obligation under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. The Internal Complaints Committee is the first body inside a Company that an aggrieved party approaches when they wish to file a complaint of sexual harassment.
The role of the ICC in ensuring that the provisions of the Act are followed appropriately cannot be overstated. In accordance, the members of the ICC in a Company are also to be chosen with regard to the role they are to play.
Finding the people for the posts in this case is the main issue that is to be focused on. While the Act does lay down certain criteria based on which the person is to be chosen, it is also necessary to go beyond the characteristics that form the list, and understand the kind of person that was conceptualized by the draftsmen (or women) of the Act.
Presiding Officer / Members / External Member:
Finding an appropriately qualified individual to fulfill the role of the external member in the Internal Complaints Committee is one particular task that poses quite a few difficulties for organisations.
More than a million workplaces in India... Do we have enough experts?
The role of External Member is very crucial in the accurate ground level implementation of the Act and its desired objectives in workplaces.
About the Program:
The program intends to provide a platform for focused discussion and exchange of knowledge and experience between different fields of professionals who are eligible to be an External Member.
Course Duration: 3 Months
Mode: Online
Seats for the batch: 20
Detailed Components:
- Mode of teaching will be completely online. Lectures will be conducted on a Learning Management System through text based modules, videos, doubt clarification sessions, guest lectures from industry experts.
- Sufficient practice tests and case studies for self assessment.
- Live cases discussion from industry practitioners for real time learning
Additional Features:
Assessment and Certification included Engagement on live cases post completion. Assignment facilitation with Corporates and Workplaces.
Target Audience:
- HR Professionals
- Lawyers
- NGO Professionals
- External Members
- Internal Complaints Committee Members
Syllabus:
- Introduction to the Act and its structure
- History of the Act and its need
- Objectives of the Act (micro and macro level)
- Authorities introduced under the Act
- Roles, responsibilities and limitations of each Authority
- Introducing ICC and selection of members
- Understanding the new Labour Law and its Compliance Guidelines
- Role of the employer in a workplace in preventing sexual harassment at workplace and employer's responsibilities under POSH Act, 2013
- Mandatory documentation requirements under POSH Act, 2013 for compliance
- Mandatory training and capacity building requirements under POSH Act, 2013 for compliance
- Consequences of non-compliance on the workplace
- Instances of violation and non-compliance
- Reporting and monitoring procedures and guidelines for Companies
- Role of management of the Company and other internal functions, like HR Team, in-house legal team, ICC team
- POSH Act Compliance as a way forward to reduce reputational risks for a Company
- Introduction to the new definitions under POSH Act, 2013
- Who is an aggrieved woman?
- Who all are considered employees?
- What is the extent of workplace definition?
- What are the acts considered as sexual harassment?
- Intent vs. interpretation
- Different forms of harassment intersecting
- Impact of changing definitions under POSH Act, 2013 on different industry verticals
- External Member Overview
- Role of the External Member as an Expert to the Internal Complaints Committee
- Duties and responsibilities
- Scope and Limitations of role
- Suggested models of engagement with Companies for an External Member
- External Member's Role in Guiding ICC
- How to conduct regular ICC meetings - objectives and guidelines
- How to conduct investigations of a complaint - timelines
- Procedural guidelines for conducting investigations
- Decision-making process
- Conducting Oral hearing
- Conducting deposition of witnesses
- Presentation of evidence and conducting cross examination
- How to maintain documentation - guidelines and templates
- Principles to be followed by ICC in its activities such as principles of natural justice, confidentiality
- Inquiry-related powers of ICC: Powers as a Civil Court, how to enforce attendance, issue summons and attachment
- Defining the role and limitation of responsibilities between ICC-Management-and other functions
- Latest updates on the role of ICC and its functioning as defined by Indian Courts.
- Documents and templates required for effective ICC functioning
- Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy Document
- Notice template
- Clause in employment contract
- Minutes of meetings
- Notice to complainant for submitting official complaint
- Notice to respondent to attend meeting
- Notice to respondent for responding to complaint
- Notice to witness to attend ICC meeting
- Interim decision documents
- Final decision draft
- Settlement agreement
- Interim decision
- Filing complaint format
- Format of FIR
Program Fees:
The fees for the program is Rs. 9,999/-
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