Employers now have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and create a safe working environment.
From 26 October 2024, employees can expect their employers to take reasonable steps to protect them from sexual harassment as a new duty comes into force.
The Equality Act 2010 has been updated to include the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023.
Employers now have a duty to anticipate when sexual harassment may occur and take reasonable steps to prevent it. If sexual harassment has taken place, an employer should take action to stop it from happening again. This sends a clear signal to all employers that they must take reasonable preventative steps against sexual harassment, encourage cultural change where necessary, and reduce the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring.
Sexual harassment is any sexual behaviour that is unwanted, offensive, and that makes you feel uncomfortable, intimidated, humiliated, or scared. It is a prohibited conduct under the Equality Act 2010 (s.26 (2)), for which redress lies in the civil courts. In addition to the Equality Act 2010 and the new Worker Protection Act 2023, Sexual Harassment is also defined in Criminal Law, Protection from Harassment Act, Stalking and Public Order Offences.
It can cover a huge range of behaviours including:
Verbal harassment: e.g., sexual comments, emails, jokes or photos
Physical harassment: e.g., unwanted sexual advances touching (from a hand on the small of your back to groping your breasts), kissing and sexual assault. Sexual assault, a criminal offence, is when a person is coerced or physically forced to engage against their will, or when a person, male or female, touches another person sexually without their consent. (CPS). Thus patting someone on the bottom may be both sexual harassment and also sexual assault.
Sexual harassment can overlap with other criminal offences in addition to sexual assault including harassment, stalking and revenge porn etc.
The huge range of possible behaviours can make it difficult to pin down, but the most important thing is how it makes you feel. If the behaviour is sexual in nature, unwelcome and makes you feel offended or intimidated, it is wrong. If you confront or report sexual harassment and are then treated badly, this is also classed as a form of unlawful harassment. Everyone has the right to feel safe and comfortable while they are at work.
While some people treat sexual harassment at work as a joke, the effects of sexual harassment certainly can’t be laughed away, with men and women reporting negative effects on their mental health, their confidence at work, and their physical health.
That’s the very point of sexual harassment, it aims to undermine and humiliate the victim.
In 2016, Everyday Sexism and the Trades Union Congressed revealed that over half of women in the UK hade xperienced sexual harassment while at work.
The study, Still Just a Bit of Banter carried out by the Everyday Sexism Project and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), surveyed over 1,500 women and discovered that 52% had been victims of unwanted sexual behaviours at work, from groping to inappropriate jokes. For women aged 16-24 this percentage rose to 63%, with almost 20% of women reporting that the person harassing them was their manager or someone in a position of authority.
While the report investigated ‘sexual harassment’, many of the incidents of unwanted touching or kissing that woman reported would be considered sexual assault by law. This highlights the seriousness of a situation that is so often excused with the phrase ‘harmless banter’.
It can be daunting to stand up to sexual harassment, but the law is there to back you up. It’s worth keeping a written record of any sexual harassment you are a victim of, including dates, times, and locations. You can think about pursuing various options including (where appropriate) speaking to the person who is carrying out the sexual harassment, lodging a formal grievance or complaint with your employer, or taking your employer to an employment tribunal.
Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has some clear advice about how to make a complaint at work and who to talk to.
An Independent Sexual Violence Advocate will also be able to advise you.
If you have witnessed someone being sexually harassed you can support the complaint, report what has happened or be at witness at a hearing.
Following the implementation of the Duty Worker Protection as part of the Act, employers are required to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. These could include:
Having a clear and specific policy on sexual harassment.
Providing training for all employees.
Considering what third parties your employees might be in contact with.
If an employment tribunal has found an employer liable for sexual harassment, it can also consider whether the employer has failed in its duty to prevent it, and if so, the tribunal can order an uplift in compensation paid to the employee. A breach of the duty may lead to an uplift in compensation by up to 25%. The amount awarded should reflect the gravity of the breach. A breach of the duty is also enforceable by the Equality and Human Rights Commission under its existing enforcement powers.
Click the link to find out about Safeline’s Specialist Training Programme: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
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