Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill (‘the Bill’) is currently progressing through parliament. This legislation could see a duty placed on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. It’s important to note that under the Equality Act 2010, employers can anyway be held legally responsible if an employee is sexually harassed at work by a colleague, if it is found they didn’t take all reasonable steps to prevent this from happening.

The Bill will impose a specific legal duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees at work and will make employers potentially liable for harassment of their employees by third parties (e.g. customers or clients).

Instead of employers being relieved of vicarious liability for their employees if they have taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent employees carrying out acts of harassment, the Bill imposes a positive duty on employers to take such steps.

Although employees cannot bring a standalone claim that an employer has failed in this duty, if harassment is found to have taken place, the employee could be entitled to an uplift in their compensation (up to 25%) where there has been a breach. This new duty can also separately be enforced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission against employers.

Businesses should pro-actively review their policies on sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination in the workplace and assess how aware employees are of them.

While a robust policy is the first step in preventing misconduct, organisations should also ensure they have a clear, zero-tolerance attitude towards this behaviour, which also addresses inappropriate behaviour of clients or customers. Similarly, workplace training for managers and workers on how to manage, avoid and report inappropriate actions can go a long way in discouraging all forms of sexual harassment in the workplace, as can providing effective support for affected employees.

There is no date as to when the Bill will become law, however it is advised that employer's review their policies and take steps to tackle this now, rather than waiting for legal change.

Advance notice of office closure
Please be aware that the office will be closed from 5pm on Wednesday 26th April 2023, re-opening from 8.30am on Wednesday 3rd May 2023. I will respond to any enquiries on my return.

As ever, if you have any questions about this update or any other queries, please get in touch.

Have a good week!

Jo

Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace - changes in legislation