New laws to strengthen protection for workers in respect of sexual harassment will be implemented in October 2024 despite suggestions that they could be scrapped

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 comes into effect on 26 October 2024. This introduces a legal duty for employers to ensure they protect workers from third-party sexual harassment.

The new laws mean that employers will have a duty to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and that employment tribunals will be able to increase compensation by up to 25% if they find that an employer has breached that duty.

In addition, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will have powers to enforce the duty and so will be able to take enforcement action against organisations which are in breach of this new duty.

It is however anticipated that these laws will be further strengthened through the Employment Rights Bill which will include new laws needed to implement Labour’s New Deal for Working People.

What employers need to do now

Hopefully, most employers will already have a process in place to prevent harassment in the workplace generally. If you are an employer and you do not have a process or policy in place to deal with this, now is the time to ensure you create such processes and policies. Even if you do already have these in place, it is likely that these will need to be reviewed and updated to reflect the new duty requiring an employer to take all reasonable steps, in relation to sexual harassment only.  

We advise that all organisations should arrange annual equality and diversity training to educate workers on harassment and discrimination in the workplace, but also to emphasise your zero-tolerance stance on such conduct and ensure that you cannot be vicariously liable for the actions of your workers under the Equality Act 2010. Now is the time to refresh the training that is provided to workers and ensure that staff understand ways in which they can raise concerns in respect of unacceptable behaviour.

You should consider the risks of sexual harassment occurring in the course of employment and given that the duty extends to third-party harassment, you must consider what third parties your staff may come into contact with and what steps you could take to reduce those risks and prevent sexual harassment of your workers.

Contact Buxton Coates Solicitors on 0330 088 2275 to find out about our Worker Protection Pack and ensure that you are ready for this new duty which comes into force on 26 October 2024.