External Members on the POSH Internal Committee: Requirements and Criteria

Reviewed and Validated by: Naman Jain, Associate

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 refers to external members, which generally means persons who have expertise in the issue of sexual harassment. Given the largely intangible nature of workplace sexual harassment, responding effectively to workplace-related sexual harassment complaints involves a range of complexities.

For this reason, external third party/members on the Internal Committee (from civil society or legal background) need to possess the following attributes:

1. Demonstrated knowledge, skill, and capacity in dealing with workplace sexual harassment issues/complaints.
2. Sound grasp and practice of the legal aspects/implications. Such expertise will greatly benefit the committee in terms of fair and informed handling of complaints to lead to sound outcomes. These external third-party members shall be paid for their services as prescribed under the law.

Criteria for the External Member

A ‘person familiar with issues relating to women’ would mean such persons who have expertise in issues related to sexual harassment and may include any of the following:

• At least 5 years of experience as a social worker, working towards women’s empowerment and in particular, addressing workplace sexual harassment;
• Familiarity with labor, service, civil or criminal law.

We, Corrida Legal, are experts in the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) related advisory and documentation and we are considered the best POSH law firm in India. We handhold corporates in cities like Gurgaon, Delhi, and Mumbai, India, and advise them on all POSH law-related issues and compliances. A few examples of the work we conduct on POSH for companies are as follows:

Sexual Harassment Policy and Complaints Procedure

Annual Filings and POSH Law compliance

Internal Committee investigations

External Membership of the Internal Committee

Internal Committee Meetings and documentation of minutes/attendance sheets

Curated Training Material for Employees & Internal Committee

Naman Jain

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naman.jain@corridalegal.com

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