Employment Bulletin – Preparing your business for the new duty to prevent sexual harassment

What is changing on 26 October 2024?

The new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will come into force on 26 October 2024.

The existing law prohibiting sexual harassment will remain in place, meaning that employers will continue to be vicariously liable for sexual harassment which has been committed by their staff in the course of their employment and, in some cases, by third parties. Businesses have a defence if they took “reasonable steps” to prevent harassment. This is a high threshold and tribunals have historically been reluctant to accept that it has been satisfied.

These provisions will not be replaced but the new Act will add an extra layer. The Act will introduce a new, proactive and standalone duty for employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent harassment from occurring in the first place. If this duty is breached, an Employment Tribunal will be able to award an increase of up to 25% in compensation where an individual brings a successful sexual harassment claim.

What should businesses do now?

Get prepared now and don’t delay! The question of whether an employer has taken “reasonable steps” is an objective one, which will depend on the facts of each situation.

Some general recommendations are:

Conduct a Risk Assessment to assess the risks in your business, and decide which steps should be taken to reduce those risks and prevent sexual harassment of staff from occurring. The new duty includes the prevention of sexual harassment by third parties (e.g. customers) and this risk must also be considered.
Provide appropriate and updated training to staff and keep records;
Review and update anti-harassment policies and communicate the update clearly; and
Create a complaints channel to ensure that staff are able to report incidents freely and without fear of reprimand.

We anticipate further legislation on this topic as the new Government has suggested that it may expand the duty in the future (to taking “all reasonable steps”), so please check in for further updates.

Please contact Nicola Tager and Lucy Cinnamond for further guidance.