Sexual harassment occurs when an individual engages in unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature. It has the purpose or effect of:
- violating someone’s dignity
- creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the individual concerned
‘Of a sexual nature’ can cover verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct including unwelcome sexual advances, inappropriate touching, forms of sexual assault, sexual jokes, displaying pornographic photographs or drawings, or sending emails with material of a sexual nature.
Employers are responsible for ensuring that employees do not face harassment in their workplace and that they proactively take steps to prevent it from happening. They have a legal obligation to take reasonable steps to protect their employees and will be legally liable if they fail to do so.
Do you have a policy on harassment that covers sexual harassment? If not, you really need to think about getting one in place and also considering training for your employees to fully understand your and their responsibilities.
As an employer you are also responsible for preventing sexual harassment by third parties i.e. your clients, customers, suppliers etc. It is frighteningly quite common for employees to experience poor treatment when working with customers, visiting supplier premises etc.
You need to carry out a risk assessment will involve identifying ‘risk hotspots’ in the workplace. Such as:
- events that raise tensions locally or nationally
- lack of diversity in the workforce
- workers being placed on secondment
Other well-known risk hotspots include inappropriate text and WhatsApp messages and personal relationships at work.
Employers face a double whammy of enforcement from both the Equality and Human Rights Commission and also via Employment Tribunals. Where Employment Tribunals find that a claimant has been subject to sexual harassment they may increase the compensation due if they believe the employer had not followed its duty to put steps in place to present the harassment from happening in the first place.
Employers should prepare, review, and audit their current policies and practices to ensure they meet the . You may need to start from scratch if you don’t have anything in place at all. It's wise to start now, as may require time to implement fully.
Contact us to find out how we can help you avoid getting caught out by these changes. Email us at info@thehrbranch.co.uk
quoting ‘HARASSMENT’ to get access to a free risk assessment tool to support you in managing potential sexual harassment issues and claims within your workplace.
You can buy a standalone Anti-Bullying & Anti-Harassment Policy from £110.00 + VAT or subscribe to our monthly HR support package (min. 12 month term) from £115.00 + VAT per month, and we will give you the policy for FREE.
We also offer training for line managers on the new duty either on-line or face to face on site. Get in touch for a quote.
