How to Set Up an Internal Complaints Committee in a Small Agency Without a Female Head?

Dear Skippers/Seniors,

Allow me to kindly put forth a query for which I request your valuable guidance. I have briefly read notes, feedback, and interactions available on CiteHR on the subject of sexual harassment.

Creating the Internal Complaints Committee

In an agency (below 50 employees) level setup which has 4 branches across India, I wish to help the senior management in creating the INTERNAL COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE. They do not have a female 'head' for the entire organization; however, the Chief Manager - HR (operating out of the head office) is a female employee.

Query About Committee Leadership

I have a simple query:
- Q1) Can she be made the head of the committee?
- Q2) If she can, will she be heading the ICC across the branches, or still, each branch needs a dedicated ICC female head?

Request your inputs.

Regards.

As per the law passed in April last year, there is no restriction on nominating a senior female person from any department as the Presiding Officer of the ICC. You can certainly appoint your Senior Manager HR to this position. However, she will be the Presiding Officer only of the location she operates from.

Every location has to have an independent ICC. Fifty percent of the committee must be women. One member should be from outside the organization and well-versed in women-related issues.

Remember, you have to create awareness among male employees, for which sessions to sensitize men need to be conducted.

There are a number of PDF documents available on the net. You may like to Google those and create a document meeting your requirements.

The law is to be read and implemented in line with the Vishakha Guidelines of 1997.

Hope this answers.

Regards, PG

Upon the expiry of the term of the ICC after 3 years, can the committee be reconstituted with the same members, or are new members required to be brought into the committee after the expiration of the 3-year term? Please advise.

Regards,
ars

Thank you for elucidating the resolution to my query. An extension of the same is below:

- Does the branch manpower capacity need to be more than 10 to avoid approaching a district/zone registered LCC?
- In case a branch has a male head only, how and what does one appoint as the committee head for such setups?
- The agency is run by the MD (male). How would he ideally be a part of all proceedings?

Regards

It is ICC and not LCC that is applicable here and what we are talking about. It does not matter how small the business is. The senior-most female employee will be the presiding officer. You can also have someone from other locations of your company in case you don't have one within. However, other members have to be from the same business unit, and, of course, one from outside as I mentioned before.

Hope this answers your query. Also, please go through the central legislation, "The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act 2013." It is available on the internet. Google it.

Regards,
Prem Goswami

Thank you for your response. However, one question still remains unclear. In case a branch of the same employer has fewer than 10 members, should we form an ICC (nominating members from other branches)?

Regards

In case a branch has fewer than 10 employees, there is no obligation to form an ICC. However, if you are still interested in setting up the ICC, you should nominate members from the same branch only.

Regards