We specialize in creating awareness on protection against Sexual Harassment at workplace with clients spread across India. We provide end-to-end POSH compliance services which include retainership services, External member support to ICC and various types of trainings and capacity building programs. We empower our clients with a nuanced understanding of the subject so as to enable them to take fair, unbiased and mature decisions on sensitive and complex issues relating to human interactions and relationships.
We have been providing these services since 2013 as per The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and as per Vishakha Guidelines prior to that .
Retainership Services
These include number of services which assist our clients in carrying out the POSH compliances in letter and spirit.
- Advisory on measures for Protection and Prevention from sexual harassment
- Review of POSH related documents like Policies, Guidelines, Reports etc.
- Drafting of POSH policies and review of related policies such as work from home / social media policy, etc
- Constituting / reconstituting Internal complaints committee
- Setting up of an agenda for quarterly ICC meetings
- Conducting the ICC quarterly meetings
- Preparing inquiry flow
- Legal advice during inquiry
- Documentation
- Preparing annual report
- Support ICC functions
- Updates on latest amendments and case laws
- Updates on latest notifications and compliances
Our services have been retained by several companies from varied domains such as manufacturing, IT / ITES, Banking, Pharma, Publications and Entertainment, Education and Hospitality
External Member to ICC
As an external member on the ICC committee, we are able to contribute based on the knowledge and experience gained through several years of litigation exposure in the field of violence retaining to women and children, employer – employee disputes and other civil disputes and also the vast pro bono work done for women empowerment and in the field of literacy.
(read more at https://vaishalibhagwat.com/pro-bono-initiatives/)
The following activities are covered in the scope of work of an external member
- Preparing templates for communications required during inquiry (standard forms, templates , communications , agreements , undertakings)
- Active participation in ICC Quarterly meetings
- Active participation in the inquiry process
- Legal advice during the inquiry
- Preparation of charge-sheet
- Assistance in drafting final recommendations
Till date we have conducted over 100 POSH inquiries as an external member
Training
We have trained more than 10000 people and still counting.
We have also conducted several training programs for chambers of commerce for its members such as
- MCCIA
- CII
- Goa Chamber of Commerce
Training services include –
This program helps to equip the ICC members with the right knowledge on the subject to prevent sexual harassment and also develop in them professional competence for implementation of the statute i.e. the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
This program will prepare HR and ICC to handle queries like: How should you handle anonymous complaints? What is the offender is not your employee? What do you do when there is no evidence for a complaint? Can you penalize a witness for not co-operating or not attending inquiry? How does the government track compliance? etc and build their capacity in order to execute their roles in the most responsible manner. It also enables them to know the preventive measures, complaints handling process, ICC powers and redressal mechanism. All HR Heads, ICC Members, Fact Finders, HR, Legal Team, etc. should attend this program.
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Training for Senior Management, HR Department, First Responders
- What to do when a complaint reaches out to you?
- Do’s and Don’ts while registering complaint
- Understanding the Law in detail and nuances in it
- Dealing with difficult situations like workplace harassment, ethical violations, defamation cases etc.
- Discussion on malicious complaints
- Discussion on principles of natural justice
- Awareness regarding other laws relating to discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment
- Employers duty towards safe workplaces
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POSH Training to employees
- Understanding Sexual harassment, workplace, who can file a complaint and how
- ICC, its role and functions
- Redressal mechanism in detail
- Building gender sensitivity through discussions
- Discussion on various case laws, examples