The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill will extend employers’ duties to protect against sexual harassment and reintroduce protection (and businesses’ responsibility and therefore legal liability) for third-party harassment.
- It will create a statutory duty requiring an employer to prevent sexual harassment of employees and workers.
- It will also make the employer liable for the harassment committed by third parties; for example, customers, service users, clients and, in an education setting, students. This third-party liability applies to all forms of unlawful harassment; for example, racial harassment, offensive conduct based on age or disability, etc.
Where sexual harassment occurs, as well as enforcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, an employment tribunal will be entitled to increase compensation in an individual harassment case by up to 25 per cent.
These are duties to prevent, which means having a policy won’t be enough. So, in addition to amending dignity at work policies, organisations must make clear what is unacceptable, enforce those standards and be able to demonstrate that action is taken to tackle these issues when they arise.
These are duties to prevent, which means having a policy won’t be enough. So, in addition to amending dignity at work policies, organisations must make clear what is unacceptable, enforce those standards and be able to demonstrate that action is taken to tackle these issues when they arise.
The Bill has its third reading this month and is expected to come into force in 2024.
The bill can be found here