Preventative Duty in relation to Sexual Harassment

Stand by for 26 October 2024 when the new preventative duty in relation to sexual harassment becomes live.

Please see our previous article for a summary of the legal obligation and the consequences of failing to comply with it.

The final version of the EHRC Guidance on this new duty was released on 26 September 2024. This article intends to cover the key practical points from the EHRC draft guidance, which are as follows:

• Risk assessment - anticipate scenarios during the course of employment and any previous/historic incidents and consider action that could be taken to prevent such harassment. This can take account of Christmas parties, work WhatsApp groups or relationships in employment. Consider risks to workers coming into contact with third parties and how third parties could harass employees.
• Consult with union reps or employee reps for examples of any previous incidents of sexual harassment that may have occurred and any areas of risk they consider exist/what the employer could do to prevent such risk. Consider which steps are reasonable to implement and justify if certain steps are not able to be implemented.
• Update policies and procedures and ensure they deal specifically with sexual harassment being unlawful. There are consequences if breached, including, for example potential gross misconduct. Define sexual harassment and give examples relevant to specific working environment. Ensure you have a clear and effective complaints mechanism (clear as to how to complain and how managers will deal) and support for complainants. Ensure other policies deal as appropriate e.g. disciplinary procedure lists as example of gross misconduct and IT policy/Social media policy deals with such behaviour online.
• Bring policies to the attention of third parties.
• Monitor effectiveness of policies and training to ensure they remain effective.
• Training for existing managers, as part of the induction of new managers and annual refresher training – could include highlighting importance of not making personal comments e.g. on a person’s appearance and think about how things they say and do could be harassment.

If you wish to access the guidance, it can be found here

If you require assistance with identifying areas in your business that may give rise to a risk of sexual harassment and steps you may wish to take to prevent such risk, please contact our employment team.