New Delhi | Jagran Lifestyle Desk:
Four months back, when people moved out of their physical workspaces to protect themselves from coronavirus and started working from home, little did they know that they were inviting colleagues, bosses and clients into their living rooms and even bedrooms.
While work from home has helped companies and employees survive these crisis times, another thing that came along with it is sexual harassment at the workplace - not in virtual form.
The virtual sexual harassment has only added to the countless hurdles faced by the people like salary cut, job loss, anxiety, depression and loneliness.
To find out legal and psychological solutions to these problems, English Jagran’s Srishti Goel interviewed advocated Anupamaa, who is a managing partner at AVRC Legal and chief trainer of Upceed Consulting Services.
With her career spanning over two decades, she has vast experience in different fields of law, along with profound knowledge of human psychology.
She told how sexual harassment has reached home along with work from home, how companies have changed their policies to offer a virtually safe environment to the employees, how to deal with stress and anxiety and other WFH-related issues.
Here are the excerpts from the interview:
Ques: What exactly Virtual Sexual Harassment is?
Ans: There is nothing called virtual sexual harassment. The law in question i.e, the Sexual harassment of women at the workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act, 2013. This act defines sexual harassment which includes any one or more of the following unwelcome acts or behaviour (whether directly or by implication) namely:
1. physical contact and advances; or
2. a demand or request for a sexual favour; or
3. making sexually coloured remarks; or
4. showing pornography; or
5. any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature;
In a virtual world, there may not be instances of physical contact and advances, however the rest of them continue to be possible even in the present work from home situation. What would then amount to sexual harassment in a virtual world as you put it, within the ambit of the existing law. Asking or insisting on women colleagues coming on video calls late night. Recording any official video calls with a female colleague and saving it on their phones etc could be instances of sexual harassment in the virtual world.
Ques: What legal actions can be taken to fight against virtual sexual harassment?
If a woman at work experiences any situation while working from home either with another male or female colleague that she is not comfortable with, she should immediately get in touch with the presiding officer of the Internal Committee to seek clarifications on whether the act amounts to sexual harassment or not. The reason I say this is because as layman one may not understand if an act is a harassment or not, when you are not very sure there is a gut feeling within you, which says things are not ok, if you get that feeling then please ask/get a clarification from the presiding officer.
Ques. What is PoSH?
Ans: It is a popular short form for sexual harassment of women at workplace (Prevention, prohibition, Redressal) Act, 2013.
Ques: How companies can develop their work from home policies to give a virtually safe environment to their female employees?
Ans: There are two important points to be considered here. One is the work from home policy. Am sure many companies are now grappling with this policy itself because so far work from home meant working a few hours or days in a week from home. Coming to office was naturally something that was on. Post Covid 19, work from home has literally become work from home, with many not having seen the physical office since 5 months. While that is a part to be taken care off, the company has to consider conducting awareness programs for employees during this period to one tell them what could amount to sexual harassment in the virtual world and how they can reach out to the presiding officer of the internal committee.
Ques: What if a female employee misuses her rights? What about the fake allegations, do we have balanced law for male employees as well?
Ans: If the female employee misuses the law there are enough checks and balances to ensure she is punished for filing a false complaint just as much as a person will be punished for committing such an act. We actually have a case decided by the Dehi High court with respect to one Anitha Suresh Vs Union of India, in which the court levied a penalty of INR 50,000 on her for pursuing a false case. Yes, the law is balanced. Coming to whether the law is balanced for male, do you know how the POSH Act came into being in the first place?
Ques: Apart from sexual harassment, salary cut, exploitation and job loss are other major issues that occurred during a lockdown. Would you recommend the victims to take legal help for this?
Ans: This question is like a double edge sword. The present situation is neither good for the employer or the employee. It may be a time where employees may have to sacrifice a bit of their luxuries to ensure that the employer keeps afloat. However such sacrifices should not be misused and if there are instances of victimisation, unfair trade practices, yes people should seek legal help.
Ques: How to deal with a sly attack of loneliness and anxiety that occurred due to the WFH pattern?
Ans: I think when lockdown was first announced by our Prime minister in march, it was time for anxiety for you and for me as well. I think now we have relaxed a bit to realise that whatever comes and goes, life will go on. Let me come to loneliness now. The one thing that motivates people to go to work more than money, if that by going out to find your livelihood you get to meet many other people, your mind is distracted and when you get back home you are excited to be with the family. Work from home has taken away that possibility as a result, there is no space between family members, working hours have increased so people are huddled up in their rooms starting 8:00 am and ending at 11:00 pm and that does set in loneliness, worse still for those who have left their families and are staying in different cities. What can one do about it? Can they? Of course they can Keep yourself connected to people. Find those few friends and colleagues you can speak your heart out, if you are suffering from anxiety and feeling very lonely and no one has time for you, find counsellors to whom you can speak. Just because you speak to a psychiatrist it does not mean you are mentally unsound. They are just like anyone of us and when other people do not have time to listen to you they will. From a company’s perspective they are also obliged to find ways and means of keeping their employees safe and healthy they should come up with programs which can get employees to connect even if it is virtually.