The Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) published a report in 2018 which highlighted the extent to which sexual harassment in the workplace remains persistent. WESC’s conclusion and recommendations, as well as the government’s response to these, can be accessed via the link here.
As a result, the government is supporting the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill 2022-23 which will:
- introduce a duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees;
- give employment tribunals the power to uplift sexual harassment compensation by up to 25% where an employer is found to have breached the new duty to prevent sexual harassment;
- re-introduce employers’ liability for third-party harassment; and
- provide that an employer will not be considered to have failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment of an employee by another employee or by a third party solely because it does not seek to prevent the expression of opinion in conversations or speech in certain circumstances.
Employers will already be mindful of the fact that sexual harassment in the workplace is unlawful. However, they will now be legally required to put in place measures to seek to prevent harassment. It has always been advisable, before the government announced their support for the bill, to have clear anti-discrimination policies in place. However, it may now be necessary to have a specific policy dealing with sexual harassment which not only seeks to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace but also creates effective reporting channels for employees.
Such policies should be well publicised in the organisation. If employees are aware that their employer is taking active steps to prevent harassment this will help create a culture intolerance of such behaviour and openness to address it. Employees may then be more likely to report incidents in the future.
Employers will also be well advised to ensure that anti-harassment training is provided to all staff and that this is reviewed on a regular basis.
Failure to take all of these steps is likely to result in an employer being in breach of the new mandatory duty and therefore suffer increased liability should they find themselves involved in employment tribunal litigation.
If you are considering the effect that this bill may have on your business and would like to discuss the employment law implications of this, feel free to get in touch with the team.
Jones Chase is a specialist employment law firm based in the centre of London with an excellent track record of looking after those that we assist.
Feel free to contact us should you require further information or need any assistance. We are always happy to speak to people and point them in the right direction.