Employer duty to prevent sexual harassment

After a consultation in July 2021 the government announced an intention to introduce a duty on employers, requiring them to take positive action to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. It also plans to introduce explicit protections from third-party harassment.

Under the proposed duty, as an employer you will still need to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in your workplace, as required by the Equality Act 2010, but once the duty is enforced you could potentially be held to account for failing to take all reasonable steps.

Another important outcome of the consultation is for the government to consider extending the time limits for those bringing an Equality Act 2010 based case to an employment tribunal - and the proposal is to extend this from 3 months to 6 months.

At Stanley & Davis we can help you to implement policy and procedures to ensure that you are taking positive action, including training your managers and employees - get in touch to discuss this with us!