Setting Up an Internal Committee for Remote and WFH Companies

Remote and hybrid work has forced a rethink of many compliance mechanisms designed for physical offices, and the Internal Committee under the POSH Act is a prime example. HR leaders at fully remote companies frequently ask us: "We have no office. Do we even need an IC? And if we do, how does it actually function without a shared physical space?"

The answer is straightforward in principle and slightly more involved in practice.

Remote does not mean exempt

The POSH Act defines "workplace" broadly under Section 2(o) — it extends well beyond a traditional office to include any place visited by the employee arising out of or during employment, including transportation provided by the employer. Courts and the Ministry's guidance have consistently read this expansively enough to cover virtual work environments: video calls, official chat groups, remote onboarding sessions, and company-sponsored virtual events all fall within the scope of "during the course of employment." If your organisation has 10 or more employees, regardless of where they physically sit, you are required to constitute an IC under Section 4.

We discuss the boundaries of "workplace" more broadly, including client sites and travel, in our piece on POSH applicability to work trips and off-site events — the same expansive logic applies to remote-first companies.

Defining "the workplace" for a company with no office

For registration and jurisdictional purposes, the IC is typically constituted with reference to the employer's registered office or principal place of business, even if no employees actually work from there. This becomes the administrative "home" of the IC — where records are maintained, where the annual report is compiled, and which District Officer or Local Committee has jurisdiction if escalation is needed.

If your company operates across multiple states with employees distributed everywhere but no physical branch, we generally recommend constituting a single, centralised IC at the registered office rather than trying to build region-specific committees, unless your headcount and geographic spread genuinely justify multiple committees.

Composition works the same way — just conducted virtually

The requirements around Presiding Officer seniority, employee members, and an independent external member don't change for remote companies. What changes is delivery: hearings, statement recording, and deliberations happen over video call rather than in a conference room. We've detailed the full composition rules — including how to appoint the external member — in our guide to Internal Committee composition.

Practical mechanics of a remote inquiry

Running a fair, legally defensible inquiry without a physical room requires some deliberate choices:

• Use a stable, recordable video platform for hearings, but be careful about consent and confidentiality when recording — under Section 16, the identity of parties and proceedings must remain confidential, so recordings need to be stored securely and access-controlled.
• Written statements should still be signed — physically or via a verified e-signature — rather than accepted as informal chat messages, to preserve evidentiary weight.
• Give both parties a genuinely private space to participate. Remote hearings can inadvertently expose a complainant to being overheard at home; the IC should confirm privacy before proceeding, not assume it.
• Maintain a clear written record of every session — attendance, questions put, and responses — since there's no physical minute book being passed around a table.

Timelines don't relax because the process is virtual

The 90-day inquiry completion timeline under Section 11 applies identically to remote ICs. In fact, remote proceedings can be more efficient — no travel time, easier scheduling across locations — provided the committee is disciplined about calendaring sessions rather than treating "we're remote so there's no rush" as an excuse for delay. We break down the full inquiry timeline in our dedicated post on the 90-day rule.

Displaying information without a physical noticeboard

Section 19 requires employers to display, at "any conspicuous place," the penal consequences of sexual harassment and the composition of the IC. For remote companies, the practical equivalent is publishing this information somewhere every employee is guaranteed to see it regularly — a pinned message in the primary company communication tool (Slack, Teams), the employee handbook shared at onboarding, and the HR intranet or wiki, refreshed and reconfirmed at least annually.

A quick checklist for remote-first employers

• Constitute an IC at your registered office, with a Presiding Officer, employee members, and an independent external member.
• Publish the policy and IC composition somewhere every remote employee will actually see it.
• Set up a secure, confidential channel for filing complaints — not a public Slack channel or shared inbox.
• Choose a recordable, private video platform for hearings and store recordings securely.
• Track the 90-day timeline on a shared calendar the moment a complaint is received.

Remote work has changed where harassment can occur and how an inquiry is conducted — it hasn't changed the underlying obligation. Employers who treat "we don't have an office" as a reason to deprioritise POSH compliance are taking on exactly the same legal exposure as a company with a physical building, with the added risk of having no established process to fall back on when a complaint actually arrives.