The Government has published its consultation response on workplace sexual harassment and harassment by third parties. The consultation was undertaken in response to the #metoo movement, which revealed that many people (mainly women) experienced sexual harassment at work despite this having been unlawful for decades.
The main announcement is a plan to introduce a new positive duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment. It would include a new statutory code of practice, to be developed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), with employers potentially liable if they do not take reasonable steps to prevent harassment in accordance with it.
This would be enforceable by both the EHRC and by individual employees after an incident had taken place. It would also be enforceable by EHRC, but apparently not by individuals, without the need for any incident to take place.
These proposals underline the importance of employers carrying out robust and effective anti-discrimination and harassment training.
Under current law, when a worker commits an act of unlawful discrimination in the course of their employment, their employer is treated as having committed the act itself. An employer has a statutory defence to discrimination and harassment claims if it can prove that it has taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent the unlawful conduct happening in the first place.
