Compensation on sexual harassment

This was a classic case of sexual harassment documentation enquiry based on evidence and outcome which is quite interesting.

 It was a multinational company in which the victim was working for more than 5 years as senior accounts executive reporting to the regional head for marketing and sales.Typical of any organization, this company also is an aggressive company with the growth trajectory

The so-called victim or the employee aged around 32 was well qualified, married and having a kid filed the complaint with their internal complaints committee ICC the following:

 She claimed she was regularly harassed and even abused sexually many times whenever she was alone in the office with the regional head.

The regional head for marketing and sales is an experienced professional aged 38 and was not married, was living single with his mother near to the office.

On many days the regional head used to work late hours and go home as the last employee of the organization always watched by the security guards.

The company had an employee strength of more than 400 and in that office more than 110 people were employed in various capacities.The regional head was termed as one of the star performer and was always considered an important asset for the organization by the superiors

The lady who filed the complaint was also a very efficient worker and had maximum bonus and incentive whenever it was declared by the company year of career.

On receipt of the complaint the presiding officer of the ICC in the company went into a huddle with the ICC team and workout a methodology to handle this particular case.

The reason for taking enough precautions for handling such issues is of Paramount importance as any wrong inquiry as the result would be damaging if not conducted properly.

The ICC took this case and got into inquiry searching for witnesses in total confidentiality after documenting the details given by the victim.The victim in her complaint clearly stated that she was abused and sexually harassed by the regional head whenever they were alone and she never had any problem when others were around.

The ICC called the offender and inquired based on the complaint against him.

The regional head totally refuted the charges and said these were totally baseless and he has no clue why such allegations were made against him by the victim and he has no reasons to do so and he was ready to co-operate with the inquiry.

The ICC is a body constituted duly by the act on posh 2013 by the company and decided to take it to the nearby police station and put forth the total inquiry conducted and suggested that with the help of police they would like to legally work to find the truth and the authorities offered to help with telephone conversation and WhatsApp message recordings of the victim in a legally binding way with documentation and waited for the result.

After 15 days of this activity the police met the ICC of the company and gave the report.

It was found in few  Whatsapp messages the alleged victim had communicated things that where contradictory to Her complaint of sexual harassment by the regional head.

Upon further verifying some records of her phone it was found that she communicated once to her friend that she had seen/read some cases on sexual harassment compensation and is trying a similar logic in the present company.

Proof has been found and hence the victim was called and on exposing the details to her she accepted that she tried to use the posh act to her benefit and start her business with a hefty compensation at the cost of the job of a regional head who was at no fault.

She was summarily removed from my job immediately and reprimanded for further action by the concerned authorities.

This incident goes to show that ICC, once constituted can be very effective in taking care of even false complaint as they have the mandate and the authority to take on such frivolous cases to the correct conclusions and also help the organization to be flawless in approaching such issues with utmost caution and without prejudice.

Hence it has to be understood that once an organization has a fully functional ICC (Internal Complaints Committee ) ,they get the power of a quasi judicial status of a civil court and the result on this case is for all to see and emulate in their companies for a better working environment.