Is a contract worker covered by the POSH Act?

Yes. Section 2(f) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013 defines an employee as a person employed at a workplace directly or through an agent, including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, and expressly includes a contract worker. Trainees, apprentices and volunteers are covered too, and a woman who is not employed at all is protected if the harassment happens at the workplace.

Whose Internal Committee hears a contract worker's complaint?

The Act does not say directly. Both the site, as the person controlling the workplace, and the contractor, as the person discharging contractual obligations to its employees, are employers under section 2(g), and each must have a committee at ten or more employees. The workplace where it happened is one natural forum; her own employer is another. Settle it in the contract in advance, and take counsel on particular facts.

Does a contractor need its own Internal Committee?

Yes, if it has ten or more employees. Section 2(g)(iii) makes the person discharging contractual obligations to its employees an employer in relation to the workplace, and section 4(1) requires every employer to constitute an Internal Committee. Below ten, complaints go to the Local Committee under section 6(1). A site can reasonably ask to see the order constituting the contractor's committee.

How long does a woman have to make a complaint?

Three months from the incident, or from the last incident in a series, under section 9(1) of the 2013 Act. The committee may extend that by up to three more months, for reasons recorded in writing, if circumstances prevented an earlier complaint. Once received, the inquiry must be completed within ninety days under section 11(4). Delay caused by passing a complaint between two committees still runs against the woman.

Does POSH cover contract workers on your site?

Yes. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 defines an employee to include a contract worker, and anyone employed through a contractor "with or without the knowledge of the principal employer". It also treats both the site and the contractor as an employer. What it does not settle cleanly is which of their two committees hears a contract worker's complaint, and that is the part a site should decide before it is needed.

A contract worker is an employee under the Act

The definition is written to leave no gap, and it names contract workers in terms. Section 2(f) defines an employee as:

a person employed at a workplace for any work on regular, temporary, ad hoc or daily wage basis, either directly or through an agent, including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, whether for remuneration or not, or working on a voluntary basis or otherwise, whether the terms of employment are express or implied and includes a co-worker, a contract worker, probationer, trainee, apprentice or called by any other such name

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013, section 2(f)

Two phrases in that sentence close the arguments sites most often reach for. "With or without the knowledge of the principal employer" means a site cannot say it did not know a contractor had placed a particular person on its floor. And "whether for remuneration or not, or working on a voluntary basis" catches trainees and apprentices who may not be on anyone's wage roll at all.

The protection is wider still than the employee definition. An aggrieved woman under section 2(a) is "a woman, of any age whether employed or not", who alleges harassment by the respondent. A visitor at the gate, a delivery driver at the dock or an auditor on the floor is covered if the harassment happens at the workplace, and the workplace under section 2(o) includes "any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment", which reaches the transport the site provides.

Both the site and the contractor are employers

The definition of employer has separate limbs, and each of them catches one of the two parties. Section 2(g)(ii) makes an employer of "any person responsible for the management, supervision and control of the workplace", which is the site. Section 2(g)(iii) then adds, "in relation to workplace covered under sub-clauses (i) and (ii), the person discharging contractual obligations with respect to his or her employees", which is the contractor. Neither limb displaces the other.

	The site	The contractor
Why it is an employer	It is responsible for the management, supervision and control of the workplace (s.2(g)(ii))	It discharges contractual obligations to its own employees at that workplace (s.2(g)(iii))
Internal Committee	Required where it has ten or more employees (s.4(1), read with s.6(1))	Required where it has ten or more employees, on the same test
Duties under s.19	Owed at the workplace it controls, to everyone who comes into contact there	Owed to its own employees, wherever they are deployed
Can discipline the respondent	Only if the respondent is its own employee	Only if the respondent is its own employee

The last row is where the practical difficulty starts. A committee can find the complaint proved, but only the respondent's own employer can act on it under its service rules, which is why section 19(i) tells every employer to treat sexual harassment as misconduct under the service rules and initiate action for it.

Which committee hears the complaint

The Act does not say in so many words, and it is genuinely arguable. Section 4(1) requires every employer of a workplace to constitute an Internal Committee. Section 9(1) lets an aggrieved woman complain "to the Internal Committee if so constituted" — the definite article, with nothing to say whose. A contract worker has two committees that could fit that description.

The committee of the workplace where it happened. The Act is organised around the workplace, the site controls the premises, the witnesses and the camera footage, and section 19(h) points at action "in the workplace at which the incident of sexual harassment took place" where the perpetrator is not an employee. Where the respondent is a site employee, only the site can act against him, which points strongly at the site's committee.
Her own employer's committee. The contractor has the employment relationship with her, the duty to her under section 2(g)(iii) wherever she is deployed, and, where the respondent is also a contract worker, the only disciplinary power over him.
Neither, if the numbers fall short. Section 6(1) sends complaints to the Local Committee the District Officer constitutes, from establishments "having less than ten workers" or where an Internal Committee has not been constituted, or "if the complaint is against the employer himself".

What each employer has to do

The same obligations apply to both, measured against what each one controls. The numbers that govern them are fixed in the Act.

10workers or more for an Internal Committee; below that the Local Committee hears it (s.6(1))

3 + 3 monthsto complain, from the incident or the last of a series; extendable once by up to three months for reasons in writing (s.9(1) and proviso)

90 daysto complete the inquiry (s.11(4))

₹50,000maximum fine for an employer who fails to constitute a committee or comply with the Act (s.26(1))

Constitute the committee properly. A presiding officer who is a woman employed at a senior level; at least two members from among employees preferably committed to the cause of women or with social-work experience or legal knowledge; and one external member from a non-governmental organisation or a person familiar with the issues. At least one-half of the members must be women (s.4(2)). In Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa, decided on 12 May 2023, the Supreme Court directed a verification exercise to ensure committees are properly constituted and functioning, so a committee that exists only on paper is exactly what has been singled out.
Provide a safe working environment, which section 19(a) extends to "safety from the persons coming into contact at the workplace" — visitors, drivers and other contractors' staff included.
Display the penal consequences and the order constituting the committee at a conspicuous place in the workplace (s.19(b)). On a site with a contract crew, a notice the crew cannot read in its own language does not do that job.
Run awareness workshops for employees and orientation for committee members at regular intervals (s.19(c)).
Support the inquiry: facilities for the committee, help securing the attendance of the respondent and witnesses, and the information the committee needs (s.19(d) to (f)).
Assist the woman if she chooses to complain under the criminal law, and initiate action against the perpetrator (s.19(g) and (h)).

A site that runs night shifts has a second reason to get this right. The conditions for employing women before 6 a.m. and after 7 p.m. under the OSH (Central) Rules 2026 include, at rule 83(h), that the 2013 Act "as applicable to the establishments, shall be complied with", and the Tamil Nadu draft rules carry the same condition at draft rule 42(9). A POSH gap on a night-shift site is also a gap in the conditions for running the shift at all.

What to settle in the contract

Almost all of this can be decided in the work order, before anyone needs it.

Which committee is the first forum for a complaint by a contract worker, and what happens when the respondent works for the other employer. Written down, not assumed.
A named contact on each committee for the other. The two committees will need each other's cooperation on almost every case that crosses the line between employers.
Access for the inquiry. The contractor's committee needs the site's premises, witnesses and records; the site's committee needs the contractor to produce its worker. Both are section 19 duties and both are easier to perform if the contract says so.
The notice reaches the contract crew, in the language of the floor, at the gate and in the canteen, not only in the administration block.
Someone reachable on the night shift. Not a statutory requirement, but a committee that can only be reached between ten and five is not reachable by most of a night crew.
Both committees actually exist. A contractor with ten or more employees owes its own committee under section 2(g)(iii). Ask to see the order constituting it, the same way you would ask to see a licence.

How liability is shared on a particular engagement, and which forum is correct on particular facts, are for the site's own counsel. The point of the list above is that none of it should be improvised on the day a complaint arrives.

How Velura Services helps

We brief every worker on how to raise a complaint, and agree with your site, before deployment, which committee hears a complaint from our crew. That agreement goes into the engagement terms, so a complaint has somewhere to go on the day it is raised.

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Sources

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (Act 14 of 2013), India Code — s.2(a) (aggrieved woman), s.2(f) (employee, including a contract worker and a person employed through a contractor), s.2(g)(ii) and (iii) (employer: the person controlling the workplace, and the person discharging contractual obligations to its employees), s.2(o) (workplace), s.4(1) and (2) (Internal Committee and its composition), s.6(1) (Local Committee), s.9(1) and proviso (three months, extendable by three), s.11(4) (ninety-day inquiry), s.19 (employer's duties), s.26(1) (fine up to ₹50,000) [VERIFY: text read from a verbatim transcription; the Gazette copy on wcd.nic.in and the India Code PDF could not be opened from this environment].
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 345(E) dated 8 May 2026 — r.83(h), compliance with the 2013 Act as a condition of employing women at night. Opened and read from a mirrored copy of the Gazette [VERIFY: against the e-Gazette original].
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Tamil Nadu) Rules, 2022 (draft), G.O. Ms. No. 38, 11 April 2022 — draft r.42(9), the same condition. Opened and read. Draft only.
Aureliano Fernandes v. State of Goa, Supreme Court of India, Civil Appeal No. 2482 of 2014, decided 12 May 2023 — directions for verifying the constitution and functioning of committees under the 2013 Act [VERIFY: read via reports and a judgment aggregator, not an official portal].