Employers have been under a duty to prevent sexual harassment at work since 26 October 2024. As a proactive duty, this requires them to take anticipate the risks of sexual harassment and take proactive steps to prevent it.

My client has a large restaurant, bar and hotel. When the duty to prevent sexual harassment first came into force a year ago, they didn’t really take much notice of it. They introduced a policy but didn’t speak to their staff about it or do much to implement it.

Now they have got a new starter who is complaining the employer is not doing anything to prevent sexual harassment, and they have said they will report the employer to the Equality and Human Right Commission (EHRC) for their failure to comply with the duty. Can they do that, and what does the employer need to do to prevent it?

Since 26 October 2024, there has been an anticipatory duty on employers to take proactive reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of workers in the course of their employment.

This applies throughout the course of employment and acts at work as well as any other place where the worker is working, such as when they are attending a client’s site or a training course, for example. It also includes work-related events, such as after work drinks.

Should an employee be subject to sexual harassment at work, they can bring an employment tribunal claim against their employer.

If that claim is successful and the employer has not complied with the duty, the tribunal could order the compensation to be uplifted by up to 25%.

Even if no sexual harassment has taken place, an employee can make a complaint to the EHRC that the employer is not complying with the duty and they could take enforcement action against them. This is however not grounds for an employment tribunal claim.

No employer is exempt from the sexual harassment preventative duty, and it is not enough for employers to simply have a policy and consider that they have complied with the duty.

When the duty first came into force the EHRC provided employers with eight practical steps to illustrate the type of action an employer could take to prevent and deal with sexual harassment in the workplace.

All employers should review these and implement any steps they have not already.

1. Develop an effective anti-harassment policy. When an employer has a policy, do their employees know their rights under and understand the obligations it puts upon them? Employers must ensure they are in a position to enforce the policy for it to be effective.
2. They should engage their staff to understand where any potential issues relating to sexual harassment lie and whether the steps they have already taken are working, and what else they can do. They could carry out a staff survey on sexual harassment to find this out.
3. Assess and take steps to reduce the risk of sexual harassment in the workplace. They should use a risk assessment to do this and formulate effective measures to prevent those risks.
4. They should implement a reporting system for employees who have suffered from or who have witnessed sexual harassment.
5. All staff, including managers and senior staff should receive training on a regular basis on sexual harassment, which should cover what it is and what they should do if they experience or witness it. It should also go over the consequences if they should sexually harass someone at work. A log should be kept of when the training was delivered and to which employees. This training should be refreshed at regular intervals.
6. Ensure there is a process in place to follow should sexual harassment take place. Those responsible for dealing with it should be aware of their roles in enforcing the organisation’s stance on sexual harassment and be supported in doing so. 
7. Employers should also reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment from third parties, eg:
   1. attach signage to the walls of the areas within the workplace where customers are present to warn that sexual harassment of staff is not acceptable
   2. inform third parties, ie, suppliers of the zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy within your supplier documentation
   3. inform customers by recorded message at the beginning of telephone calls of their zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment.
8. Monitor and evaluate the actions taken to prevent sexual harassment. A log should be kept of any actions on sexual harassment, including when a complaint has been received and what was done about it. This should be monitored regularly to check if any changes to the above measures are necessary. A staff survey can help to assess the effectiveness of the measures they have in place and any actions that need to be changed.

By Stacie Cheadle, technical writer, Croner-i

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