On 26 October 2024, important changes to the law on sexual harassment in the workplace will take effect. Here’s what employers need to know.
Key takeaway
New legal duty: From 26 October 2024, employers must take reasonable steps to prevent their employees from sexual harassment in the course of their employment.
What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of:
- violating a person’s dignity or
- creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.
Examples of sexual harassment include spoken or written words, images, banter, gestures and discussions of a sexual nature. The harassment doesn’t have to be aimed at the person making the complaint, and even one-off incidents can count.
What does “in the course of employment” cover?
This applies not only to regular working hours but also to work related events and business trips.
How does this change affect employers?
Employers must take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment at work. Failure to do so could result in:
- Enforcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC); and/or
- Increased employment tribunal compensation – If an employee successfully brings a discrimination claim to an employment tribunal, the compensation awarded could increase by up to 25% if the employer has not complied with this new duty.
What should employer’s do?
The EHRC has published an eight step guide for employers on preventing sexual harassment at work.
Here are our key tips:
- Review policies – Implement, review and update workplace policies to ensure they cover sexual harassment comprehensively.
- Foster a safe culture – Engage with employees so that they feel safe reporting inappropriate behaviour.
- Improve reporting – Consider anonymous surveys, staff feedback channels, or appointing an internal “employee champion” to handle concerns.
- Conduct risk assessments –Identify situations where staff may face sexual harassment and take steps to reduce risks.
- Offer training – Provide regular sexual harassment training to all employees.
- Audit past complaints – Review previous complaints and assess how they could have been prevented.
- Monitor and evaluate – Continuously review complaint outcomes and make improvements as needed.
Further reading:
Looking ahead
The government has recently announced further changes to the law, including:
- Strengthening the requirement from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps.”
- Reintroducing employer liability for third-party harassment (already included in EHRC’s guidance).
How can we help?
If you need advice on how these changes may affect your business, we offer a free initial consultation on employment law matters.
Contact us
For further discussion, please contact our employment team:
- Phone: 01872 226990
- Email: employment@murrellassociates.co.uk
Alternatively, you can send us a message.
