Worker Protection Act – duty to protect against sexual harassment in the workplace
From Saturday 26 October 2024, all employers in the UK have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
Here is some advice on what UK businesses, including UK ELT centres, must do to comply with the new law.
The Worker Protection Act 2023 introduces changes to the Equality Act 2010.
- Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees
- Employment tribunals will have the power to increase the amount of compensation by up to 25% where an employer is unable to demonstrate that they have complied with their duty to prevent sexual harassment.
What is sexual harassment?
The Equality Act 2010 defines sexual harassment as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating the worker's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
For the purposes of the Act, 'unwanted' means 'unwelcome' or 'uninvited'.
What counts as 'unwanted sexual behaviour'?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) guidance provides a list of actions that could be seen as unwanted behaviour. A few examples are listed below
- sexual comments or jokes
- propositions and sexual advances
- sexual gestures
- intrusive questions or comments about an employee's sex life
- unwelcome touching, hugging, massaging or kissing
Duty of employers to prevent sexual harassment of workers
The aim of the duty to prevent sexual harassment is to improve the workplace culture.
- Take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, such as providing regular training for staff at all levels and having appropriate policies in place
- Anticipate and identify scenarios in which employees are at potential risk of sexual harassment and act to mitigate this risk
- Have adequate evidence that they have taken reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the event of a complaint.
Next steps and training for members
We recommend that members sign up for training so staff are fully aware of the Worker Protection Act 2023. You should also organise training for managers in your organisation so that they lead by example and know how to handle complaints.
We strongly recommend that you conduct a risk assessment and use it to put measures in place to mitigate the risk of sexual harassment in your workplace.
We have partnered with Lead5050 on sexual harassment training.
Lead5050 offers training on preventing sexual harassment at work for all staff and on implementing the Worker Protection Act, which is aimed at managers. If you book the Lead5050 training via English UK, you'll receive special discounted rates.
We have two sessions taking place on Thursday 31 October:
The training costs £149 for non-members and £99 for members. To unlock the member tickets, please use your member number as the promo code.
Further reading
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