October 2024 sees the introduction of new employer duties related to sexual harassment in the UK.
The UK’s Worker Protection Act 2023 (Amendment to Equality Act 2010) Bill obliges employers to change their approach from reactive to proactive and preventative in the management of such behaviours from October 26.
This Q&A and top tips delve into the dos and don’ts, exploring employers’ responsibilities in relation to the new legislative shift.
Q: When does the Worker Protection Act 2023 (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) come into force?
A: October 26, 2024.
Q: Do the provisions apply to all organisations, no matter their size?
A: Yes.
Q: What is sexual harassment?
A: Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, which is intended to, or has the effect of, violating a person’s, dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for them.
Whether or not unwanted sexual conduct violates a person’s, dignity or creates an offensive environment, depends on the victim’s perspective, and whether their reaction is reasonable in all the circumstances.
Sexualised behaviour that has an impact on the individual, intended or not, can be deemed sexual harassment. Unlike harassment, sexual harassment is not defined as repeated behaviour. One incident is enough to qualify as sexual harassment.
Q: What does the Equality Act 2010 say about harassment?
A: In a workplace context, harassment is defined as unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic. It violates a person’s, dignity, or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for a person.
Protected characteristics include age, disability, gender, reassignment, race or ethnicity, religion, or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
A workplace environment can include a team meal or drinks, or a Christmas party – even if not organised by the employer – as it could be classed as an ‘extension of the workplace’.
Q: Who is most at risk from sexual harassment at work?
A: Any individual can be subject to sexual harassment, regardless of their gender, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or role at work. That said, there are certain groups who are at greater risk of sexual harassment, including women aged 18-24, members of sexual minority groups, those with a disability or long- term illness and workers with flexible working arrangements or precarious employment contracts, such as casual workers, freelancers and interns.
Q: What are examples of sexual harassment?
A: There are many examples of what constitutes sexual harassment. Some examples are touching, hugging, sexualised jokes, kissing, suggestive looks, massaging, staring or leering, stalking, discussing your own sex life, indecent exposure and sexual posts, photos or posters.
Q: What are the exceptions to the new protections?
A: The regulations do not apply to forms of harassment that relate to age, gender, disability and so on. Also, the provisions do not explicitly cover volunteers, but it is not yet clear how the latter differ from unpaid interns in law. FAIRER Consulting recommends that employers consider extending any activity, training or actions in response to these new regulations to volunteers wherever possible for this reason.
Finally, the new provisions make clear that they apply to all, irrespective of sex or gender identity.
Q: What happens if I fail to comply with these provisions around sexual harassment?
A: Employment Tribunals will be able to increase compensation by up to 25% if an employer is found to have breached their duty to take reasonable steps to preventing sexual harassment.
Top Tips
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For further information on how you can tackle sexual harassment, please get in touch.
