Under a new section 40A of the Equality Act 2010, employers must take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment. This new duty emphasises the need for employers to be proactive in preventing sexual harassment and keeping their employees safe. Our Employment team is here to help provide guidance, advice and support throughout the new legal changes.
New duty
This change comes into force on 26 October 2024. It introduces a new positive legal obligation on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the course of employment. It covers not only harassment by other employees, but third parties too.
What happens if I don’t comply?
Employers can be found vicariously liable for sexual harassment if it occurs during the course of their employment. This means that the new duty can be breached, even if the employer is not aware of the conduct.
Employment Tribunals can uplift sexual harassment compensation by up to 25% where the new duty has been breached which can increase the financial consequences of non-compliance.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have many enforcement powers such as investigating employers, issuing an unlawful act notice requiring the employer to create an action plan to remedy continuing breaches and seeking an injunction, just to name a few.
Do you need our help to comply with the new duty?
Training
Online training
- Please refer to our latest Breakfast Briefing on the new duty to prevent sexual harassment, which can be found below.
In-person training session on preventing sexual harassment
- We can conduct training for all employees to ensure that your staff understand what sexual harassment is, and how they can work together to prevent it.
In-person training for senior staff/HR
- Bespoke training for senior staff and HR to discuss how to adjust to the new duty, what additional steps you need to take, and how to handle sexual harassment complaints in the workplace.
Reviewing contracts and policies
- A comprehensive review of your current sexual harassment policy/policies, highlighting areas for improvement
- Drafting a new sexual harassment policy and other related documents in line with the new duty
- A thorough examination of your employment contracts for employees and contracts with third parties, to ensure you are not caught out by the new duty
- Ensuring that policies are made available not only to staff but to third parties who may interact with your employees
Managing risk
- We can work with you to create a risk assessment plan to identify what ‘reasonable’ steps you could be expected to take. We can help to implement the actions required to make sure that your company is compliant with the new duty
- We can create sample wording for a workforce questionnaire to help you better understand the risk in your workplace, so that you can create targeted changes such as new policies or arrange further training
View the webinar replay here.
How can we help you?
If you are looking for guidance and advice which isn’t listed here, please get in touch with the Employment team and we will do our best to accommodate what you and your business need.
