HARASSMENT OF WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
WHAT IS
HARASSMENT?
Harassment
means any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favors, or other verbal
or written communication or physical conduct of a sexual nature or sexually
demeaning attitudes, causing interference with work performance or creating an
intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment, or the attempt to punish the
complainant for refusal to comply with such a request or is made a condition for
employment.
WHAT IS A COMPLAINT AND WHO CAN FILE A COMPLAINT?
Complaint means
a woman or man who has made a complaint to the Ombudsman or to the Inquiry
Committee on being aggrieved by an act of harassment.
WHO IS OMBUDSMAN?
A person
shall be qualified to be appointed as an Ombudsman who has been a judge of the High
Court or qualified to be appointed as a judge of the High Court. The Ombudsman may
recruit such staff as required to achieve the purposes of the harassment this Act and the finances will
be provided by the respective Governments.
PROCEDURE
FOR HOLDING INQUIRY
The inquiry committee, within three days of receipt of a written complaint, shall
(a)
Communicate
to the accused the charges and statement of allegations leveled against him, the
formal written receipt of which will be given;
(b)
Require
the accused within seven days from the day the charge is communicated to him to
submit a written defense and on his failure to do so without reasonable cause,
the Committee shall proceed ex parte; and
(c)
Enquire
into the charge and may examine such oral or documentary evidence in support of
the charge or in defense of the accused as the Committee may consider necessary
and each party shall be entitled to cross-examine the witnesses against him.
The Inquiry Committee
shall have the power to regulate its own procedure for conducting an inquiry and for
the fixing place and time of its sitting.
The committee shall
follow the following provisions
(a)
The
statement and other evidence acquired in the inquiry process shall be
considered as confidential;
(b)
An
officer in an organization, if considered necessary, may be nominated to
provide advice and assistance to each party;
(c)
Both
parties, the complainant and the accused, shall have the right to be
represented or accompanied by a Collective Bargaining Agent representative, a
friend, or a colleague;
(d)
Adverse the action shall not be taken against the complainant or the witnesses;
(e)
The
inquiry committee shall ensure that the employer or accused shall in no case
create any hostile environment for the complainant so as to pressurize her from
freely pursuing her complaint; and
(f)
The
Inquiry Committee shall give its findings in writing by recording the reasons
thereof.
Submission of findings
The Inquiry Committee
shall submit its findings and recommendation to the Competent Authority within
thirty days of the initiation of inquiry. If the Inquiry Committee finds the
accused to be guilty it shall recommend to the Competent Authority for imposing one or more of the penalties.
The competent authority shall
impose the penalty recommended by the Inquiry Committee within one week of the
receipt of the recommendations of the Inquiry Committee.
The Inquiry Committee shall meet on
regular basis and monitor the situation regularly until they are satisfied that
their recommendations are subject to a decision if any of the Competent Authority and
Appellate Authority have been implemented
In case the
complainant is in trauma the organization will arrange psycho-social
counseling or medical treatment and additional medical leave.
The organization
may also offer compensation to the complainant in case of loss of salary or
other damages.