INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Preetha Soman, Madhur Khandelwal, Aishwarya Maria Manjooran and Rebecca Thomas, JSA Advocates & Solicitors
siderations, and a commitment to maintaining a safe and fair workplace.
the intranet. (c) A hotline/online reporting portal. Anonymity of Complaints
1.3 Communication Channels Grievance Redressal Concerns
In India, there are no specific legal provisions that either explicitly permit or prohibit anonymous com - plaints. Accordingly, employers may choose to allow for anonymous complaints to be filed. In fact, there are many Indian employers that have anonymous reporting channels/ethics hotlines, which allow their employees to raise whistle-blowing complaints or grievances anonymously. While anonymous complaints can encourage employ - ees to voice concerns without fear of retaliation, they can also often be difficult to investigate effectively as it limits the employer’s ability to reach out to the com - plainant to undertake a detailed fact-finding exercise, especially where the information provided by the com - plainant may be incomplete or vague. However, under the PoSH Act, the complaint must be filed by the aggrieved woman herself, or a prescribed person on her behalf, disclosing her identity. The reso - lution mechanism set out under the PoSH Act does not enable anonymous complaints to be investigated. 1.4 Responsibility Who Can Carry Out an Internal Investigation? Unless specified under law (refer to 1.3 Communica- tion Channels for specific types of grievances), the responsibility of carrying out an internal investigation is often determined based on the nature of the com - plaint and any company policies in this respect. HR investigations in India can be conducted either internally or externally. As a general principle, the investigator should not have any conflict of interest vis-à-vis any of the par - ties involved, ensuring that the integrity of the process is maintained throughout. In cases where the investigation is conducted inter - nally, it is often managed by the HR department, the ethics, employee relations or legal compliance teams, or by members of the senior management team.
Employee grievances/concerns are dealt with by dif - ferent channels, depending on the nature and/or type of concern. While HR and/or immediate supervisors typically handle employee grievances of relatively simple and straightforward natures, some require to be directed through different internal mechanisms or statutorily mandated channels, depending on their nature, as outlined below. • Complaints pertaining to sexual harassment of women at the workplace need to be reported to and addressed by the ICC constituted under the PoSH Act. • Complaints and/or concerns raised by transgender employees are to be dealt with by the Complaints Officer as appointed by the employer under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 (“Transgender Protection Act”). • Complaints pertaining to discrimination on the grounds of disability are to be raised with the head of the establishment, under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (“Disabilities Act”). • Other grievances or concerns may be redressed appropriately by a grievance redressal commit - tee (GRC) constituted under the IR Code (which is required to be constituted by industrial establish - ments engaging 20 or more workers, in the man - ner prescribed under the IR Code and rules made thereunder). • While there is no legal requirement to have a spe - cific medium for reporting concerns, employers typically choose to adopt a variety of methods to ensure that employees have appropriate forums to escalate their concerns. These forums include the following. (a) Designated speak-up forums. (b) Specific email addresses for reporting con - cerns so that issues are directed to the appro - priate department, such as HR, compliance, an ICC, or legal teams. These emails are typically referenced in employee handbooks, policies, or
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