The new Worker Protection Act, which comes into effect on 26th October 2024 creates a duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the workplace.
The act states that employers “must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment.” This extends to when employees are working outside of their office, and when they are attending social events that are considered an extension of work.
Employers who fail to prevent sexual harassment towards an employee can face financial repercussions. Under the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2023), if a tribunal finds an employer failed to take steps to protect workers, it will be able to order them to pay a 25% uplift to any award of compensation for sexual harassment.
What are the challenges with the current legislation?
- Ingrained behaviours aren’t challenged – which means workplaces don’t create a psychological safe space which allows all staff to be themselves and disclosures are rare.
- Some solutions have a detrimental effect – for example, a ‘zero tolerance’ policy will quickly lose the trust of employees if one person feels unheard and similarly, ‘champions’ only have true value if they have clear objectives and accountability; without these, it’s tokenism.
- A clear line of sight for effective reporting may not be present.
- Trust in employers can be quickly lost – women who are victims of harassment are more than likely to leave the organisation within 18 months, no matter the outcome of the complaint.
- Money is perceived to outweigh people so problems are not aired – for example, finance directors are present on Boards but not HR, and companies celebrating high-performing income-generating staff, no matter the behaviour.
What should organisations do differently?
The top area is to ensure transparency in measurement and reporting to escalate and address any problems. If an employee raises a complaint, do they believe it will be resolved? Do you have clear and confidential reporting mechanisms?
All organisations need to commit to action, to recognise the risks of getting it wrong, but also the rewards of trying and getting it right. Employers need to be proactive and systematic on how they prevent and tackle sexual harassment, this is not ‘tick-box’ exercise and employers will need to show evidence of the reasonable steps taken.
There also needs to be greater two-way communication between Senior Leaders/business owners and employees by:
- Understanding the challenges faced by employees. Regularly review people surveys and polls, and proactively investigate any emerging concerns or red flags.
- Ensuring employees feel heard. Organisations need effective voice mechanisms, for example, employee surveys and representative groups. If you do not give employees a voice, you are telling your staff that you do not care what they have to say.
Also, you should:
- review your policies and procedures and update them if they aren’t focused on preventing harassment;
- conduct a risk assessment to identify and address potential risk areas, including reviewing past incidents, assessing cultural problem areas and evaluating the impact of third-party interactions;
- ensure that all employees understand that sexism and misogyny are unacceptable; and
- arrange training to ensure that your organisation is able to prevent attitudes and behaviours that lead to harassment.