LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

“Sexual misconduct at workplace and Indian corporate and securities law: exploring corporate disclosures of sexual harassment cases by Indian companies in #MeToo era”

Photo from wikipedia

Purpose This paper aims to focus on compliance of workplace sexual harassment-related provisions under Indian companies and securities law, based on an empirical analysis of companies’ sexual harassment-related disclosures contained… Click to show full abstract

Purpose This paper aims to focus on compliance of workplace sexual harassment-related provisions under Indian companies and securities law, based on an empirical analysis of companies’ sexual harassment-related disclosures contained within their directors’ annual reports (ARs). Specifically, sections devoted to sexual harassment-related disclosures, inbuilt within directors’ ARs for the financial year 2019–2020 for a selected sample of companies listed under the National Stock Exchange, have been analysed. Design/methodology/approach To examine the nature of companies’ disclosures to demonstrate their compliance with statutory requirements under the POSH law, aligned with the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 and Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulations, an empirical-based, descriptive content analysis of ARs of 200 listed companies were used. Findings This study primarily finds that the majority of companies from the sample have disclosed to have prepared a corporate-level policy, as required under the POSH law. As also required under the POSH law, companies, reportedly, have constituted an Internal Complaints Committee to adjudicate and dispose of incidents related to sexual misconduct reported at their workplaces. However, companies lack in disclosing qualitative information, with sufficient detail, on many important aspects related to prevention and resolution of reported cases of workplace sexual harassment. Originality/value This paper adds to the broader narrative of the lacunae within the disclosure and reporting requirements on enhancing the liabilities of the companies to prevent and address sexual harassment under India’s corporate and securities regulations.

Keywords: sexual misconduct; sexual harassment; harassment; indian companies; securities law

Journal Title: International Journal of Law and Management
Year Published: 2023

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.