Building Internal Complaints Committee (IC) for Handing Sexual Harassment at Workplace
Written by: Rohit Iyengar, Edited by: Ungender Blog TeamThe 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 (“Act“). 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 conceptualised by the draftsmen (or women) of the Act.
Who Constitutes Internal Complaints Committee?
Every employer with more than 10 employees is required to constitute an ICC in his organisation. In the event the offices of the workplace are located in different places or have multiple levels, the ICC is to be constituted in each of them. Thus, no matter how small or inconsequential the role of an office, it would still require that an ICC be constituted. An Internal Complaints Committee consists of the following members who are nominated by the employer, who consist of:
- Presiding Officer- Every ICC shall have a Presiding Officer, who is a woman nominated from among the senior members of the organisation. In the event that there is no woman in the senior levels of the organisation, the Presiding Officer will be a person who is to be nominated from other offices or units from the same workplace. What is important that the person nominated be a woman, who is a senior level employee at the organisation.
- Internal Members- At least two members from amongst the employees are to be chosen. These members are preferably those who are committed to the cause of women or who are experienced in social work or have legal knowledge. In short, it is not just any employee, but rather, one who can positively contribute to the working of the committee.
- External Member- An external member is also to be chosen from a non-governmental organisation or an organisation committed to the cause of women or a person who is familiar with issues relating to sexual harassment.
Apart from choosing the appropriately qualified member from within the organisation itself, it is also imperative that the external member chosen is one who has prior experience in the field. The external member is of such importance as they provide an objective external view, as well as making sure that the decisions of the ICC are not swayed by the potential influence that the organisation could exert over them. The external member is also entitled to be paid the necessary fees and allowances for holding proceedings.
Operations of the Internal Complaints Committee
The members of the ICC serve for a period that is specified by the employer, which commences from the date of nomination and cannot exceed three years. Further, the members of the ICC are also liable to be removed from their posts, should they publicise details of the complaints and inquiries, or in any way abuse the office they hold. As is seen in many cases, the creation of the ICC is not the be all and end all of compliance with the Act for employers. Companies are also responsible to hold skill building programmes for the members of the committee. The ICC, in turn, are required to the file annual reports of sexual harassment complaints received and disposed of.
Problems Faced by SMEs and Startups in Implementing an IC
While choosing the person seems no arduous task on paper, organisations are seldom structured in a fixed manner. While the multi national companies that base all their actions on what is prescribed as right, surely face no major issue with selecting the members, the problem arises when there is no recognizable structure in the organisation, as is usually the case in start-ups or other such workplaces with complex structures. Apart from this, constitution of an ICC is not at the top of the priority list for most start-ups.
While TVF and ScoopWhoop do make headlines for their undeniably impressive achievements, the allegations against the top brass in both cases brought to light the problems that exist in such workplaces. In the aftermath of these complaints, employees of TVF and ScoopWhoop who were interviewed by the Economic Times, admitted that they were unaware of the existence of an internal complaints committee. There are two possibilities in this case, neither of which are comforting. The first is that such start-ups do not constitute ICCs as they do not believe that constituting such a committee would be worth the resources. The alternative is that even if they constitute the ICCs, the employees are unaware of such a body existing in their organisation.
While the importance of the ICC cannot be overemphasised, its necessity is often underestimated. Undefined workplace structures like TVF and ScoopWhoop either failing to constitute an ICC or failing to make it known to the employees, implementing the provisions clearly shows ignorance to the intent of the law which seeks to establish safe workplaces for employees. The fact that an employee is unable to work in the environment created, should be dealt with a seriousness proportionate to the gravity of the incident.
About the author: This post has been written by Rohit Iyengar, as part of his assignment with Ungender Insights. Rohit Iyengar is currently a student of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
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