BUSINESS HELPDESK HELP DESK
PREVENT SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK
Charlie McHugh, head of client insight at Halborns Ltd, which provides the BMF Intelligent Employment Plus Service, explains the new legal responsibilities coming into force.
EMPLOYEES ALREADY HAVE a right not to suffer sexual harassment at work and can bring an employment tribunal claim as a result.
On 26th October 2024, the catchy-named Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 means that all employers will be under a new legal duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent the sexual harassment of employees at work.
Remarks that some people may consider as joking or ‘banter’ is still sexual harassment if it violates someone’s dignity, whether that was intended or not, or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. This can be a one-off incident or an ongoing pattern of behaviour. It can happen in person or online.
So what’s changing? The Act introduces a new proactive duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment from happening in the first place. Employers must be able to provide evidence on the specific steps they’ve taken (and continue to take) to protect employees from sexual harassment - failure to do so will have new financial consequences.
What are the new financial consequences? Employment tribunals have the power to apply an uplift of up to 25% on compensation awarded in successful claims where an employer has breached this duty. Compensation for harassment claims is already uncapped and is made up of past and future loss of earnings, injury to feelings and
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personal injury. Any compensation uplift could have potentially huge financial consequences for employers if they’re found to have breached the new duty. Lidl recently had to pay over £50,000 in compensation after an employee was told to “take it as a compliment” after raising concerns about inappropriate comments. That could have meant another £12,500 if the maximum 25% uplift applied.
What “reasonable steps” should you take?
“Reasonable steps” are not defined by the legislation, but we’ve provided five proactive recommendations to take early action to encourage an appropriate culture within the workplace and help avoid exposure to the compensation uplift if your organisation is found liable for sexual harassment. 1. Zero-tolerance - set a clear and consistent approach to dealing with issues of sexual harassment. Harassment without consequence
“Remarks that some people may consider as joking or ‘banter’ is still sexual harassment if it violates someone’s
dignity, whether that was
intended or not.”
can breed a culture of acceptance and potentially hefty tribunal awards. Even with the right policies and training in place, those tasked with dealing with grievances must be empowered and supported to act consistently and take robust action when required. 2. Policies - bullying, anti- harassment and inclusivity policies must be up to date, regularly
communicated, and enforced. Tribunals are already quick to call out employers with out-of-date policies that act simply as a “paper commitment to equality issues”. Ensure your policies are clear on how to report concerns and how those concerns will be dealt with. Get in touch if you’d like us to review your existing policies. 3. Training - tribunals take a dim view of “tick box” and “stale” training, so up-to-date, meaningful, and robust learning is key to educating and embedding what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour. Training should cover employees at all levels and be refreshed annually. We’ve built an eLearning solution to help – scan the QR code below to book a demo.
4. Risk assessments - start by thinking through where and when sexual harassment might occur, who is likely to be the victim (keep an open mind here!), what preventative measures you already have in place and how you measure the success of your policies (amongst other things). Keep your risk assessment under review.
5. Specially training individuals - sexual harassment complaints are hopefully few and far between. For that reason, it’s sensible to select individuals within your organisation with the right skills to support appropriately when a grievance is raised and to provide those individuals with extra training in the moment and throughout the year.
• Halborns have cost-effective solutions to support BMF members with everything they need to implement effective policies. Email info@halborns. com : Call 0115 718 0333. Visit
www.halborns.com
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net September 2024
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