What is Sexual Harassment as defined under POSH Act?
The POSH Act states that ‘sexual harassment’ is any unwelcome sexual behaviour, whether directly expressed or implied, and includes the cases of physical contact and advances, or a sexual favour demanded or requested, or making remarks with sexual overtones, or showing pornography or other offensive material, or acting in an unwelcome sexual manner through physical, verbal, or non-verbal means.
There are a number of circumstances that may constitute sexual harassment, including those listed below if they occur or are present during an act or behaviour of sexual harassment:
- A promise of preferential treatment at work;
- A threat of adverse treatment in the workplace that is implied or explicit;
- An implied or explicit threat regarding a person’s employment status, present or future;
- Interference with work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment; or
- Humiliating treatment likely to affect the lady employee’s health or safety.
The POSH Act defines sexual harassment as either direct or implied conduct, regardless of whether it is physical, verbal, or written. The distinctive feature of this type of behaviour is that it is undesirable and unwelcome. Among the forms of sexual harassment is quid pro quo sexual harassment, which is a form of sexual blackmail. A typical scenario of quid pro quo harassment involves a person in power pressuring an employee for sexual favors in exchange for advancement or the threat of adverse employment action.
In addition to creating an intimidating working environment, the definition also refers to creating a hostile working environment. For example, a work environment in which a woman employee feels embarrassed because she gets unwelcome comments about her body type. The burden of determining whether the harassment suffered by the victim amounts to a hostile work environment rests on the internal committee because there is no fine line test specified under the Act. Additionally, what constitutes sexual harassment varies from case to case depending on the facts and the context.
