What is POSH Act?

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 — commonly called the POSH Act — is a central law that requires every employer to provide a safe working environment for women and to set up a formal mechanism for preventing and addressing complaints of sexual harassment.

• Every employer with 10 or more employees must constitute an Internal Committee (IC) at each office or branch.
• The Act protects women employees, including regular, temporary, contractual and daily-wage workers, as well as women visiting the workplace for work-related reasons.
• District officers constitute a Local Committee (LC) to handle complaints from establishments with fewer than 10 employees, or where the complaint is against the employer.

• Constitute an Internal Committee with the composition specified under the Act (presiding officer, members, and an external member from an NGO or association working on women's issues).
• Display the POSH policy and committee details prominently, and conduct employee awareness/training sessions.
• Complaints must generally be addressed by the Internal Committee within the statutory timelines prescribed under the Act.
• File an annual report on the number of complaints received and disposed of, as required under the Act.

• Not constituting an Internal Committee at every branch/office location separately.
• Having an Internal Committee without the mandatory external member.
• Treating POSH training as a one-time onboarding activity instead of periodic, documented awareness sessions.
• Not filing the annual POSH compliance report with the relevant authority.