Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work

EHRC publishes templates to help employers with preventing sexual harassment at work.

8-Step Guide for Employers on Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

The Equality Act 2010 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.

Employers have a positive legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers by colleagues and third parties.

Failure to do so can result in enforcement action by the EHRC and/or increased compensatory awards at Tribunal.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have published an 8-step guide to preventing sexual harassment at work:

1.    Develop an effective anti-harassment policy

2.    Engage your staff

3.    Assess and take steps to reduce risk

4.    Consider a reporting system

5.    Provide training on identifying harassment and complaints

6.    Understand how to handle complaints

7.    Deal with harassment by third parties

8.    Monitor and evaluate your processes

For more information and to read the full guide see link here.

If any of these issues have affected you or your business and you wish to seek advice, please contact CSJ Legal here. 

November 2024