From this autumn, a new act will come into force that introduces a new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
The Worker Protection Act (amendment of Equality Act 2010) will come into force in October 2024 and will change the duty on employers from redress to prevention.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is updating its 2020 technical guidance on sexual harassment in the workplace to help employers to comply with the new duty and understand the law.
The public can feed into the EHRC consultation on the technical guidance until 6 August 2024. The technical guidance will then be published in September 2024.
Reducing sexual harassment
NHS Employers says that in advance of the new duty and technical guidance, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has listed steps that employers can take to prepare.
These include:
- Organisational and cultural change – senior leaders should set the tone for expectations around behaviour and workplace civility
- Policies and procedures – formal policy will not change culture on its own. But it is still important to have written policies and guidance
- Training and development – there should be regular training sessions for all staff. This will help them to understand what sexual harassment is and their role in preventing/addressing it
- Reporting channels and investigating – there need to be well-promoted reporting channels for complaints and the organisation needs to respond to these promptly, fairly and thoroughly. Any evidence of discriminatory behaviour or harassment among staff needs to be investigated and acted on swiftly
- People management capability – line managers play an important role in identifying, challenging and dealing with unfair treatment including sexual harassment. They need to have the necessary training, education and guidance
- Monitoring and review – monitor the gender diversity of the workforce at every level. This will help to highlight if there is any potential discrimination or harassment on grounds of gender. Staff attitude surveys will allow organisations to collect feedback.
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