POSH Training: Safeguarding Employees and Organizations

What is PosH ?

POSH referred as Prevention of Sexual Harassment.
It refers to the POSH Act, 2013, designed to provide a safe, respectful, and harassment-free workplace for all employees in India, especially women. Hence the new law has created by Court.

In modern work environment, PoSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) training is very important for every organization against the harassment at workplace.  It’s a essential step toward providing a safe, respectful, and productive healthy workplace. It is very important to know about the understanding of PoSH training, because it explains the importance, and the consequence of non-compliance is vital for every organization.

How POSH Training Builds a Safe Work Environment?

1. Legal Compliance – Companies in India are legally required to conduct Prevention of Sexual Harassment training for all employees and create an Internal Complaints POSH Committee (ICC) with a Senior Women employee.
2. Prevention and Awareness – Employees get a clear idea of what creates workplace harassment and how to identify inappropriate behavior.
3. Encourages a Safe Work Culture – Creating a safe workplace helps uphold boundaries while nurturing a culture of respect and inclusivity.
4. Legal Risks – Make Sure compliance with the POSH Act helps secure Companies from legal repercussions and Brand image and social damage.
5. Promotes Positive Work Environment – Employees’ productivity and job satisfaction increase when they feel safe and valued.

 

Who are the key participants to attend POSH Training?

 

POSH training is important for all employees, including:

• New Hires – Make sure new employees must know workplace conduct policies from the joining day.
• Managers and Team Leaders – They are the one identify and address harassment issues to take initiative.
• Inhouse PoSH Committee Members – Internal Company’s POSH committee members must attend the training to take a proper action against the compliant.
• Third-party Vendors and Consultants – Creating awareness among external partners working alongside employees to support a safe, harassment-free workplace.

 

How Often Should POSH Training Be Conducted?

POSH training must be conducted in each and every organization at least once a year, so organizations are empowered to include it into their onboarding processes and periodic refreshment sessions to emphasize awareness.

Posh Internal Committee & External Members

The ICC is an in-house redress mechanism to inquire into alleged complaints of sexual harassment in organizations. It must include at least one external member and be headed by a senior woman employee.​

Every employer must establish ICC at every branch of the organization where more than ten employees are working. This committee includes one Presiding officer, members and one external member. All these three categories are compulsory. The minimum number of the committee members is three and maximum number is ten. This committee must meet once at the end of every quarter to ensure that there is no case in the past quarter.  Ideally in every meeting the expert (The external member supposed to be an expert) should conduct awareness program. The awareness includes-

•    PoSH Act
•    Handle the PoSH compliant
•    Writing the report
•    To Provide counsel or take appropriate action

Main duty of Internal PoSH Committee is divided into three parts.

 

 

Compliance:

 

   o    Conducting quarterly meeting – Every internal Committee must conduct quarterly meetings at every quarter. There must be a external committee member who has to appear in this meeting which is compulsory.  For other members it is a common rule of the meeting that more than 50% quorum must be there for the meeting.  In the meetings they must discuss the handling of PoSH compliant if any.

 o    Maintaining the record of Minutes of the Meeting – Minutes of the meeting (MOM) is most important part of the compliance. These Minutes of the Meeting needs to be maintained in a file. This file needs to be mentioned in annual report along with other documents. 

 o    Annual report filing – POSH compliance services is according to the calendar year and not as per the financial year. So it’s returns needs to be filed in the month of January every year for the previous year. 

 

  Awareness:

o    Implementing Awareness Programs – POSH is people-oriented program. The meaning is the onus lies on employer as well as employees. It is mandatory to provide employees awareness programs. 

o    Policy Display – It is important by law to display the policy on the Notice board of the company. This policy should be maintained according to the law.