PROTECTING WOMEN AT WORK POSH ACT 2013 IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Sexual harassment at work is a wrong done to one woman and, at the same time, a failure of the institution that employs her. How a legal system divides responsibility between the harasser and the employer, who has to prove what, and what a complainant can realistically recover decides whether a statute works on the shop floor or only on paper. This paper examines the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 (the POSH Act) in comparison with Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act 1964, the UK Equality Act 2010 and the equal treatment directives of the European Union, with Directive 2006/54/EC at the centre. The comparison is built around three questions: when is the employer liable, how is the burden of proof allocated, and what remedies are open to the complainant. The paper argues that the POSH Act is a compliance-driven, committee-based scheme which penalises an employer chiefly for failing to put machinery in place, whereas Title VII and the Equality Act hold the employer answerable for what happens inside the workplace and excuse it only where it has acted in time. The POSH Act is also silent on the burden of proof and gives the complainant no direct claim against the employer. The paper closes with reform suggestions suited to the Indian setting.