Paid leave for sexual harassment victims
Instructions have been issued by this Department vide Office
Memorandum dated 27.11.2014 regarding Alignment of Service Rules with
the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Act 2013. As per para 6 of the said Office Memorandum, the
Complaint Committee will have the powers to recommend to the employer
(a) to transfer the aggrieved woman or the charged officer to any other
workplace; or (b) to grant leave to the aggrieved woman up to a period
of three months, which will be in addition to the leave she would be
otherwise entitled to.
As per Section 9 of Chapter IV of the Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, any
aggrieved woman may make, in writing, a complaint of sexual harassment
at workplace to the Internal Committee within a period of three months
from the date of incident and in case of a series of incidents, within a
period of three months from the date of last incident.
The Committee may, for the reasons to be recorded in writing, extend
the time limit not exceeding three months, if it is satisfied that the
circumstances were such which prevented the woman from filing a
complaint within the said period.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s
Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri
P.Nagarajan and Shri B. Vinod Kumar in the Lok Sabha today.
