Written by Heidi Wadsworth | 4th November 2024
The saying goes that prevention is always better than cure. When it comes to ensuring equality and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, the focus is increasingly on employers to act in advance rather than deal with problems later.
The most recent and urgent example is the Worker Protection Act, which came into effect on October 26th, 2024. This is a significant piece of legislation, placing new obligations on employers – and the biggest risk to employers comes from doing nothing about it.
If your organisation has not taken active steps to comply with the Act, then it’s important to remedy that – immediately.
Here is a guide to the new law, what employers need to do, and how the team at Reality HR can help.
What is the Worker Protection Act?
The Worker Protection Act – whose full name is the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 – represents a shift in focus when it comes to protecting workers.
While employers were previously required to take steps to ensure a safe working environment for their people, this new legislation imposes a new legal obligation for them to actively take steps to prevent sexual harassment.
The Act comes as a wide overhaul of employment rights progresses through Parliament in the form of the Employment Rights Bill.
This bill proposes a widespread amendment of employment law to cover a range of provisions around handling redundancies, equality and trade unions.
It will be some time before the Employment Rights Bill becomes law, as it’s likely that nothing will happen on this until Autumn 2026.
However, as the Worker Protection Act is on the statute books already, there is an urgent need to act, as there is a hugely increased risk of legal action against employers who fail to take preventative action on sexual harassment.
What should employers be doing to prevent sexual harassment?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has very clearly set out the steps employers must take to prevent sexual harassment in technical guidance last updated at the end of September, ahead of the new Act coming into law.
The guidance contains eight steps, the most important being that employers should carry out a risk assessment, create or update an effective anti-harassment policy, and deliver tailored training to staff.
There should also be reporting, monitoring and evaluation in place to determine the effectiveness of the steps you have taken, and a clear procedure in place for making and dealing with harassment complaints.
Failure to do any, or all, of these things creates a hugely increased risk of legal action if a sexual harassment case ever occurs – as employers will effectively be seen as negligent for having failed to prevent the harassment.
The team at Reality HR has a programme to get businesses up to speed quickly with tools including a compliance checklist, webinar and management training. Contact us to find out more.
What do employers need to do immediately?
Employers should make sure they have all the eight steps in the guidance covered – but the most urgent to address are:
Carry out a risk assessment
Your business is not protected against any future action if you don’t have a risk assessment in place. The guidance is very clear on this, stating: “An employer is unlikely to be able to comply with the preventative duty unless they carry out a risk assessment”. Your risk assessment should consider any past incidents and complaints, and any areas in the business where there may be a particular risk of a culture of inappropriate sexual banter or behaviour.
Create or update your sexual harassment policies
Your business should have Dignity at Work and anti-harassment policies in place. If so, they must be refreshed to ensure they are fit for purpose under the new legislation. If you don’t have these policies, then it’s a matter of urgency to get these drafted – and they should be tailored to your organisation.
There is no one-size-fits-all policy, and failing to ensure the policy meets the requirements of your specific workplace or business could be seen as a failure to take your obligations seriously.
As with any workplace policy, it’s essential not just to have the policy, but to make sure it is communicated to employees and understood by them.
Organise training for your leaders and teams
The third immediate need is for training – for line managers and for staff – to ensure they are aware of the new legislation and their obligations. Again, this should be tailored for each employer and for the target audience – for instance, the training for leadership teams and line managers will be different to those in more junior job roles.
Don’t be complacent and believe that once the training has been carried out, your obligations have been met. The law is very clear that training should be regularly refreshed.
A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal case (EAT) – Allay(UK) Ltd vs Gehlen – ruled in favour of an employee who complained of harassment. The EAT upheld the original Employment Tribunal’s decision that the employer had not taken reasonable steps to prevent the harassment, because although equality and diversity training had been provided, it had not been refreshed in two years and was “stale”.
We would advise that training is carried out annually and carefully recorded – the EHCR guidance is clear that “employers should keep records of who has received the training and ensure that it is refreshed at regular intervals.”
What happens if an employer does not comply with the Act?
Employers who do nothing about the Worker Protection Act face an increased level of risk. If a claim is made, and a tribunal finds in the employee’s favour, i.e. that they have been sexually harassed in the course of their employment, the employer can be ordered to pay an uplift of an additional 25% to the employee’s compensatory award.
Consequences include not only those large compensation awards, but also damage to the business’s reputation. A successful case is also more likely to lead to further claims from others if harassment is a more of a widespread problem than an isolated incident.
The importance of taking action now
Every employer should take steps now to ensure compliance – and the Reality HR team are here to help.
Your first step should be to download our employer’s checklist. This will give you valuable information about how prepared your business is, what risks you are exposed to, and what action you should take urgently.
Our FREE Webinar – New Changes to Sexual Harassment Legislation – Is Your Organisation Ready? – is essential for employers who want to find out more. At this event, on November 7, our experienced HR Consultants, together with employment law specialists from Herrington Carmichael, will guide you through the increased responsibilities for employers, and the steps to meet the new legal requirements and create a safer, more inclusive environment for your employees.
Employer’s to-do list
- Register for our webinar to learn how to protect your business from risk
- Download our Dignity at Work checklist
- Find out more about Reality HR’s tailored management training services here.
If you have any questions about the Worker Protection Act, please get in touch with our team at [email protected].