3. Duty to Prevent Sexual Harassment – Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023

3.1. A new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work came into force from 26 October 2024. Employers who fail to take reasonable steps could be subject to a 25% uplift of the compensation award in a Tribunal where evidence demonstrates that specific action was required to prevent harassment.  This duty requires employers to prevent the harassment of employees by third parties where this occurs during the course off their employment.

3.2. The Employment Rights Act does three things:

• Firstly, it extends this duty to require employers to proactively prevent all types of harassment due to a protected characteristic (age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation) including harassment by third parties
• Secondly, it requires employers to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent harassment
• Thirdly, it specifically gives a Minister of the Crown to make regulations specifying what steps an employer should take to prevent harassment.

3.3. Regulations will be published to specify what those steps might be – for example, publishing sexual harassment policies, training of staff to recognise and report sexual harassment, and risk assessments to help minimise any risk of sexual harassment.

3.4. The duty to prevent third party harassment and the duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ are both expected to come into force in October 2026.  Further consultation is required before the regulations which will define ‘reasonable steps’ are published so they are expected in 2027/2028.

3.5. Employers should, if they haven’t already, take steps to ensure that they are compliant with the current duty to prevent sexual harassment and reproduce those steps to ensure that harassment due to a protected characteristic have been covered.  We would expect reasonable steps to include undertaking risk assessments, training staff on how to identify and internally report harassment, ensuring that your reporting procedures are robust and updating your policies.

3.6. Please be aware that a report of sexual harassment will be treated as a public interest disclosure (see whistleblowing in relation to sexual harassment below).