On 26 October 2024, the new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will come into force. The Act introduces a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps and proactive measures to prevent sexual harassment of their workers from occurring in the workplace, and the duty also includes taking steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties, such as clients and customers.
The Act defines sexual harassment as 'unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating someone’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them’.
From October 26 if an employer is found liable for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment a tribunal can uplift compensation (in successful claims) by up to 25%.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has recently produced guidance on preventing sexual harassment at work, which includes a useful 8-step guide. The guidance makes it clear that an employer is unlikely to be able to comply with the preventative duty unless they carry out a risk assessment.
Employers are also required to have a policy setting out their organisation's commitment to preventing bullying and harassment at work (including sexual harassment) which also covers the procedure for raising and investigating complaints of bullying and harassment.
We have created some new resources and updated some older ones on our HR Hub to support our HR Customers including:
- A short recorded webinar providing an overview of the changes to the law and its impact on employers
- Updated guidance on the Duty to Prevent Sexual Harassment at Work
- A risk assessment template
- An updated Anti Bullying and Harassment policy
- An updated Equality, diversity and Inclusion policy
Our HR Resources Hub is available for all customers of advisory and comprehensive HR SLAs. It can also be purchased as a standalone product via annual subscription.
If you are not an HR customer why not sign up for a 7-day free trial ? Trial access allows you search over 1000 sector-specific pages of HR content and downloadable resources aimed predominantly at schools, academy trusts and sixth form colleges based in England.
