2.1.1 Sexual Harassment
‘Sexual Harassment’, includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behavior (whether directly or by implication) namely:
- Physical contact and advances; or
- A demand or request for sexual favours; or
- Making sexual coloured remarks; or
- Showing pornography; or
- Any unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.
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2.1.2 Aggrieved woman
In relation to a workplace, a woman, of any age, whether employed or not, who alleges to have been subjected to any act of sexual harassment by the respondent and includes contractual, temporary, visitors.
2.1.3 Respondent
A person against whom a complaint of sexual harassment has been made by the aggrieved woman.
2.2 Redressal Mechanism:
BPO Integra India Pvt. Ltd hereby adopts the following procedure for determining complaints filed to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act.
2.2.1 Internal Complaints Committee (ICC):
The Internal Complaints Committee comprises of:
- Presiding Officer: A woman employed at a senior level in the organization or workplace
- At least 2 members from employees, committed to the cause of women and or having legal knowledge
- One external member, familiar with the issues relating to sexual harassment
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2.2.2 ICC Responsibilities:
- Receiving complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace
- Initiating and conducting inquiry as per the established procedure
- Submitting findings and recommendations of inquiries
- Coordinating with the employer in implementing appropriate action
- Maintaining strict confidentiality throughout the process as per established guidelines
- Submitting annual reports in the prescribed format
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2.2.3 Lodging a Complaint
- The Aggrieved woman needs to submit a detailed complaint to grievance@globalintegra.net, along with 3 copies of written complaint and any available documentary evidence or names of witnesses, to any of the committee members at the workplace.
- The complaint must be lodged within 3 months from the date of incident/ last incident.
- The Committee can extend the timeline by not exceeding 45 days, if satisfied that these reasons prevented the aggrieved women from lodging a complaint.
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2.2.4 Receiving a Complaint
- Any complaint received by the members should be immediately forwarded to the Presiding Officer, and this must be notified to other committee members at the earliest and not later than 3 days and a meeting should be called for discussing the matter.
- The Committee shall discuss and decide on its jurisdiction to deal with the case or reject the complaint prima facie and recommend to the organization that no action is required to be taken in the matter.
- Notice shall be issued to the respondent within 7 working days of receipt of the complaint and 10 working days shall be given for submission of reply (along with the list of witnesses and documents.)
- The Committee will provide assistance to the aggrieved woman, if she so chooses, to file a police complaint in relation to an offence under Indian Penal Code.
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2.2.5 Resolution procedure through conciliation
- The Committee may, before initiating an inquiry, at the request of the aggrieved woman, take steps to settle the matter between her and the respondent through conciliation.
- No monetary settlement shall be made as the basis of conciliation. Where a settlement has been arrived at, the ICC shall record the settlement so arrived and forward the same to the employer for necessary compliance.
- The Committee shall provide the copies of the settlement as recorded to the aggrieved woman and the respondent. Where a settlement is arrived at, no further inquiry shall be conducted by the ICC.
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2.2.6 Resolution procedure through formal inquiry
- If conciliation is found to be not feasible, notice will be issued to both parties for hearing.
- The Committee may direct the Registrar to ensure the safety and protection of the aggrieved woman if and when required.
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2.2.7 Interim relief
As an interim measure, ICC may recommend
- The transfer of the aggrieved woman or the respondent to another section or Department as deemed fit by the Committee.
- Grant leave to the aggrieved woman up to a period of three months or
- Refrain the respondent from exercising any administrative authority or supervision or academic evaluation of the aggrieved woman.
- Grant such other relief to the aggrieved woman as the case may require.
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2.2.8 Inquiry Procedure
- The Committee shall proceed to make inquiry into the complaint in accordance with the provisions of the service rules applicable to the respondent considering sexual harassment as misconduct.
- The Presiding Officer shall convene the first hearing of the enquiry. The respondent, the aggrieved woman, and the witnesses shall be intimated at least 7 working days in advance in writing of the date, time and venue of the enquiry proceedings or based on the situation enquiry could happen the next immediate working day. The subsequent proceedings may be on a day to day basis, to be decided by ICC.
- The Committee shall provide reasonable opportunity to the aggrieved woman and the respondent for presenting and defending her/his case.
- The Committee may at any time during the enquiry proceedings, preclude the face-to-face examination of the respondent and the aggrieved woman and/or their witnesses. Keeping in view the need to protect the aggrieved woman or the witnesses from facing any serious health and/or safety problems.
- The Committee may call any person to appear as a witness if it is of the opinion that it shall be in the interest of justice. The aggrieved woman/respondent has to submit the written reply before the committee within the specified time given.
- The Committee shall have the right to summon, as many times as required, the respondent, aggrieved woman and/or any witnesses for the purpose of supplementary testimony and/or clarifications.
- The Committee shall have the power to summon any official papers or documents pertaining to the aggrieved woman as well as the respondent.
- The past sexual history of the aggrieved woman shall not be probed into as such information shall be deemed irrelevant to a complaint of sexual harassment.
- The Committee shall have the right to terminate the enquiry proceedings and to give an ex party decision on the complaint, should the respondent fail, without valid ground, to be present for three consecutive hearings convened by the Presiding Officer.
- The aggrieved woman and the respondent shall be responsible for presenting their witnesses before the Committee. However, if the Committee is convinced that the absence of either of the parties to the disputes is on valid grounds, the Committee shall adjourn that particular meeting of the Committee for a period not exceeding five days. The meeting so adjourned shall be conducted thereafter, even if the person concerned fails to appear for the said adjourned meeting without prior intimation/valid ground.
- All proceedings of the ICC shall be recorded in writing. The record of the proceedings and the statement of witnesses shall be endorsed by the persons concerned as well as the committee members present in token of authenticity thereof. In case the minutes cannot be reduced in writing the same day, as audio recording of the proceedings may be made, and the written proceedings will be authenticated on a next available opportunity.
- If the aggrieved woman desires to tender any documents by way of evidence, the Committee
can supply true copies of such documents to the respondent. Similarly, if the respondent
desires to tender any documents in evidence, the Committee shall supply true copies of such
documents to the aggrieved woman.
- In the event the Committee thinks that supplementary testimony is required, the Presiding
Officer shall forward to the persons concerned a summary of the proceedings and allow for a
time period of seven days to submit such testimony, in person or in writing, to the Committee.
- The aggrieved woman and the respondent shall have the right of cross-examination of all
witnesses. However, such cross-examination shall be conducted in the form of written
questions and responses via the Committee only. The respondent shall have no right to
directly cross- examine the aggrieved woman or her witnesses.
- The respondent/aggrieved woman may submit to the Committee, a written list of questions
that he/she desires to pose to the aggrieved woman/witness. The Committee (ICC) shall
retain the right to disallow any questions that it has reason to believe to be irrelevant,
mischievous, slanderous, derogatory or gender-insensitive.
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2.2.9 Action to be taken after inquiry
- After concluding its investigation, the Committee shall submit a detailed reasoned report to the organization.
- If the Committee finds no merit in the allegations, it shall report to the organization.
- In the event the Committee finds that the allegation(s) against the respondent have been proved, it shall recommend the nature of action to be taken by the organization. The following actions may be recommended:
- A written apology
- Warning
- Reprimand or censure
- Withholding of promotion
- Withholding of pay rise or increments
- Undergoing a counseling session
- Carrying out of community service
- Terminating the respondent from service
- Any other punishment according to the service rules applicable to the respondent
- When the Committee arrives at the conclusion that the allegation against the respondent is malicious or the aggrieved women or any other person making the complaint has made the complaint knowing it to be false or the aggrieved women or any other person making the complaint has produced any forged or misleading document, it may recommend to the organization to take action against such falsification.
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2.2.10 Confidentiality
- The identity of the aggrieved woman, respondent, witnesses and proceedings of the Committee and its recommendations and the action taken by the organization shall not be published, communicated or made known to the public, press or media in any manner and it will be outside the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
- No legal practitioner will be allowed to represent either the aggrieved woman or the respondent in proceedings before the Complaints Committee.
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