Sexual Harassment Legislation for 2025
The legislation around sexual harassment in the workplace has changed recently. You may have seen this reported on in the press.
What has changed?
Sexual harassment in the workplace was already prohibited, and the employer had to show that they took ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment from occurring.
The law now goes a step further and imposes a mandatory legal duty on employers to be proactive and to prevent sexual harassment by taking reasonable precautionary action.
Another change is that employers need to take reasonable steps to prevent 3rd party sexual harassment, i.e. from customers, suppliers, and members of the public. As a reminder, the law also applies to situations outside the normal workplace, including social functions. So, with Christmas events on the horizon, this is something to review.
What do you need to do?
Without getting too technical, if a sexual harassment claim is successful, the employment tribunal can uplift any award by 25% if this proactive stance hasn’t been taken. Legally this is called a ‘positive duty’.
How can Clockwork HR help?
We can help with your Sexual harassment policy, Risk assessment template and checklist and provide a toolkit to deal with the changes in legislation. We can also provide training for you and your team. Why not give us a call?
Please feel free to forward this update to your network, friends and colleagues.
What has changed?
Sexual harassment in the workplace was already prohibited, and the employer had to show that they took ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent harassment from occurring.
The law now goes a step further and imposes a mandatory legal duty on employers to be proactive and to prevent sexual harassment by taking reasonable precautionary action.
Another change is that employers need to take reasonable steps to prevent 3rd party sexual harassment, i.e. from customers, suppliers, and members of the public. As a reminder, the law also applies to situations outside the normal workplace, including social functions. So, with Christmas events on the horizon, this is something to review.
What do you need to do?
- Educate your team and managers and carry out refresher training.
- Have an effective anti-harassment policy that deals with sexual harassment specifically, which has very clear reporting procedures for staff wanting to make a complaint.
- Carry out risk assessments to identify where harassment could occur, ie customers and staff parties.
- Inform third parties of your zero-tolerance stance to sexual harassment and, for example, display signage in the workplace warning customers and the general public that sexual harassment is not acceptable.
Without getting too technical, if a sexual harassment claim is successful, the employment tribunal can uplift any award by 25% if this proactive stance hasn’t been taken. Legally this is called a ‘positive duty’.
How can Clockwork HR help?
We can help with your Sexual harassment policy, Risk assessment template and checklist and provide a toolkit to deal with the changes in legislation. We can also provide training for you and your team. Why not give us a call?
Please feel free to forward this update to your network, friends and colleagues.