From 26th October, the Worker Protection Act 2023 (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) will force Businesses, Law Firms and Chambers into making anticipatory changes to their policies and guidelines as a means of preventing sexual harassment incidents.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it would have the power to take enforcement action against employers if they were not seen to be “proactive” on the issue. Talking to Legal Futures, they explained:
“Employers should not wait until an incident of sexual harassment has taken place before they take any action. The duty requires that employers should anticipate scenarios when its workers may be subject to sexual harassment in the course of employment and take action to prevent such harassment taking place…however, if an employer fails to take reasonable steps to comply with the preventative duty, there are consequences."
The legal change has been heavily debated during its legislative journey, and has undergone two significant changes.
Senior Policy Advisor at the CIPD, Rachel Suff, said that now that the law is coming into force, it presents “an important opportunity to build awareness and encourage compliance to prevent sexual harassment within the workplace.”
She believes that employers need to be proactive and meticulous in how they plan to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. She continued, “This is not a ‘tick-box’ exercise and employers will need to show evidence of the reasonable steps taken. To do so, they need to focus attention on a number of priority areas.”
Employers which fail to comply with the new duty face both financial and reputational risks.
If an employee succeeds with an employment tribunal claim for sexual harassment - and the employer is found to have breached its duty to take reasonable steps to avoid the sexual harassment - the tribunal will be able to uplift the monetary value by up to 25%.
As there is no limit to the amount of compensation that can be awarded for discriminatory harassment, making the potential financial impact significant.
Overall, it is essential for employers to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace to avoid both financial and reputational risks associated with non-compliance.
The CIPD have released those areas as:
UK employers now have a legal obligation to safeguard employees from harassment and sexual harassment and training aims to equip both employers and employees with the knowledge and tools to prevent, recognise, and address these issues effectively.
To help organisations implement proactive steps, we've developed two training modules:
For further details regarding our new training, please visit our webpage or feel free to reach out to us via email at hello@getbriefed.com.
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