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The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force on 26 October 2024, introducing a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. ACAS has since updated its guidance to reflect the introduction of this new duty, which somewhat mirrors guidance published by the EHRC. We have previously commented on the EHRC guidance in another article we published, which can be found here.
The ACAS guidance makes clear that employers should:
- Assess whether risks of sexual harassment are currently present within their organisation.
- Determine the risks of sexual harassment occurring in the future.
- Consider the risk of sexual harassment occurring outside of the workplace, including at client meetings, work related events and travelling to and from work.
- Be mindful of the different risk factors, which are associated with individual types of workers. For example, young workers or those with learning disabilities are at a higher risk.
- Consider what steps to take if sexual harassment does occur. What are considered “reasonable steps” for one company may not be reasonable for another. Reasonableness will be dictated by the size of the organisation, the resources the organisation has, the kind of work the organisation does, the level of risk, the third parties with whom the organisation’s employees will meet, and any previous acts of sexual harassment within the organisation.
- Allow all employees access to a designated sexual harassment policy. The policy should set out the expectations of employee behaviour and provide clear information on how an employee can report incidents of sexual harassment, who they can report them to and what support they will receive in relation to this.
- Ensure associated policies including grievance and disciplinary policies, are updated.
- Larger organisations should allocate a senior member of staff who is responsible for ensuring the organisation is following its sexual harassment policy.
- Conduct regular, informative training sessions to ensure that:
- employees recognise sexual harassment and know what to do when they see/experience it; and
- managers understand their responsibilities to prevent sexual harassment and know what to do when such behaviour is brought to their attention.
- Ensure that they are regularly reviewing and assessing their policies and training materials so that these are up to date and effective.
The new guidance from ACAS, alongside the guidance from the EHRC, is essential reading for organisations looking to comply with the new duty. However, employers should be aware that Labour’s Employment Rights Bill will introduce a more onerous duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees, including by third parties. It will also amend the law on whistleblowing so that it will be a protected disclosure for an employee to report that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur. As such, whilst compliance with the new law is essential, further (more onerous changes) are on the way.
If you wish to obtain further guidance on how best to navigate this new duty, please do not hesitate to contact Lynsey Blyth. Alternatively please see our article, which sets out various points on how organisations can best prepare for this change.
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