Uncategorised Preventing Sexual Harassment At Work

Before we get started, we just wanted to say that our usual jolly tone of our blogs, will be replaced by a more serious tone for this one, due to it being such an important and heavyweight topic

A recent change to the Equality Act now requires employers to prevent sexual harassment of their workers. They must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of workers in the course of their employment.

Previously, employers were required to investigate any complaint of sexual harassment once it had occurred.  Now they must take steps, in advance of any act of sexual harassment, to prevent it occurring. This new requirement includes preventing sexual harassment whilst a worker is working and in other circumstances where the worker is not working but that relate to work, such as a staff party or social gathering at work.

The duty requires that employers should anticipate scenarios when its workers may be subject to sexual harassment, in the course of employment, and take action to prevent such harassment taking place. However, if sexual harassment has taken place, the employer must take action to stop sexual harassment from happening again. If an employer fails to take reasonable steps to comply with this duty, there are consequences.  These include employee compensation being increased by up to 25% as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) being empowered to take enforcement action against the employer.

In addition to this new duty to prevent sexual harassment, by an employer’s own workers, it also requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties, such as clients and customers.

What is reasonable will vary from employer to employer. The law does not list specific steps an employer must take. Different employers may prevent sexual harassment in different ways, but all employers must take action, and no employer is exempt from the sexual harassment preventative duty.

Advice recently published by the EHRC states that an employer should:

  • Consider the risks of sexual harassment occurring in the course of employment
  • Consider what steps it could take to reduce those risks and prevent sexual harassment of their workers
  • Consider which of those steps it would be reasonable for it to take, and
  • Implement those reasonable steps.

An employer is unlikely to be able to comply with the preventative duty unless they carry out a risk assessment. Spotlight HR can provide further information about risk assessments.

In deciding whether a step is reasonable, the factors that may be relevant include (but are not limited to):

  • The size and resources of the employer
  • The nature of the working environment
  • The sector the employer operates in
  • The risks present in that workplace
  • The nature of any contact with third parties, e.g. type of third party, frequency, environment
  • The likely effect of taking a particular step and whether an alternative step could be more effective
  • The time, cost and potential disruption of taking a particular step, weighed against the benefit it could achieve
  • Whether concerns have been raised with an employer that sexual harassment has taken place (it would likely be reasonable for the employer to take steps to investigate and ensure it does not happen again)
  • Compliance with any relevant regulatory standards (for example, standards set by the Financial Conduct Authority or General Medical Council)
  • Whether steps taken appear to have been effective or ineffective, e.g. if a further incident of sexual harassment occurs after steps have taken, this may indicate that additional and / or alternative action should be considered.

A step may be reasonable, even if it would not have prevented a particular act of sexual harassment.

As part of the measures to prevent sexual harassment and victimisation, the EHRC requires employers to have in place effective and well-communicated policies and practices which aim to prevent harassment and victimisation. This will not only encourage reporting of any unlawful conduct but also communicate the consequences of engaging in unlawful conduct. The policies should be monitored and their success regularly reviewed

Clearly, this is an important change in the law and places a wide-ranging obligation on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment occurring in the workplace. The consequences for any employer of failing in this duty are serious.

Spotlight HR is here to assist you and can provide further practical guidance on the topic.