New duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment
- 01 October 2024
- Employment
A new legal duty comes into force this month placing a positive obligation on all employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published practical guidance on this ‘preventative duty’ and what employers need to be doing.
The guidance makes clear that this preventative duty covers not only harassment committed by another worker or agent of the employer but also third parties. It is an anticipatory and ongoing duty and so employers are expected to anticipate the risks for employees of sexual harassment within their businesses, take action to prevent this and keep this under review.
An employer who breaches this duty can face enforcement action from the EHRC and, if an individual succeeds in a claim for sexual harassment, any compensation the employer is required to pay can be increased by up to 25%.
The guidance states that employers will unlikely be able to show compliance unless they have carried out a risk assessment. This risk assessment will need to consider the risks of sexual harassment occurring, the steps that could be taken to reduce these risks and which steps would be reasonable for the employer to take.
Certain factors may increase the risk of sexual harassment occurring including a male-dominated workforce, a workplace culture that permits crude / sexist ‘banter’ or other disrespectful behaviour, gendered power imbalances (for example, where most junior staff are female and most senior staff are male) and workplaces that have lone or night working.
The guidance recommends that employers produce an action plan that sets out the preventative steps they will take and how this will be monitored (and that employers could consider making this available to workers or the general public).
The guidance makes clear that this preventative duty covers not only harassment committed by another worker or agent of the employer but also third parties.
What is reasonable will vary from employer to employer and relevant factors will include the size and resources of the employer, the nature of the working environment, the sector the employer operates in and risks present in that workplace. Even if a step would not have prevented the sexual harassment, it may still have been reasonable to take.
The guidance provides some examples and information on steps employers could consider taking, and we have highlighted some of the main ones below and how we can assist you.
The duty comes into force this month so please contact our employment team if you have any questions or need any support.
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Disclaimer
This information is for guidance purposes only and should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice. Please refer to the full General Notices on our website.