{"id":20916,"date":"2024-10-21T08:09:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T07:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/?post_type=blog&amp;p=20916"},"modified":"2024-10-21T08:09:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T07:09:52","slug":"amendment-to-the-worker-protection-act-new-duties-to-prevent-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/news\/2024\/amendment-to-the-worker-protection-act-new-duties-to-prevent-sexual-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Amendment to the Worker Protection Act: New duties to prevent sexual harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"xmsonormal\">New duties to prevent sexual harassment<\/h2>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\">The new proactive requirement for employers to take reasonable measures to prevent workplace sexual harassment will take effect on 26 October 2024. Whilst majority of our members will be aware of the forthcoming changes, below is a quick recap of background and what they need to consider.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\">EHRC 2018\u00a0<span class=\"pink\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.equalityhumanrights.com\/sites\/default\/files\/2021\/turning-the-tables-ending-sexual-harassment-at-work-march-2018_2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Turning tables report\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span>demonstrated that:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">3 in 4 respondents experienced sexual harassment at work<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">Almost all of those with experiences of sexual harassment above were women<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">1 in 4 were harassed by a third party<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">1 in 2 hadn\u2019t reported harassment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pink\"><b>Before October 2024:\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\">Sexual harassment is already unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. Employers can defend claims of sexual harassment if they can show that all reasonable steps had been taken to prevent it from occurring. EHRC could take enforcement action in relation to breaches of Equality Act 2010.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pink\"><b>After October 2024:\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\">Employers are now under statutory duty to proactively prevent sexual harassment from occurring. Employment tribunals can increase compensation to employees claiming. Employees can report breaches of duty directly to EHRC although a breach of duty to prevent is not enough to make a tribunal claim on its own. As above EHRC\u00a0 can take enforcement action in relation to breaches of Equality Act 2010 \u2013 including this specific duty (i.e. not taking reasonable steps to prevent).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span class=\"pink\"><b>Sexual harassment occurs<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>when a worker is subject to unwanted conduct that is related to a protected characteristic and has the purpose or the effect of:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">violating the worker\u2019s dignity,\u00a0or<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that worker<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">And is sexual in nature<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\">Behaviour is or could be considered sexual harassment even if:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">It only happened once<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">The person experiencing harassment did not address it there and then<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">The perpetrator did not mean to \u2018harass\u2019<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">The conduct was not \u2018physical\u2019- it can be verbal and behavioural<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">The behaviour was directed at someone of the same gender or sex<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">It happened outside of work<\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\">Wasn\u2019t motivated by sexual desire<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pink\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Employers should:<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\" type=\"1\">\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Carry out a risk assessment to find out more and consider what reasonable steps they may need to take \u2013 depending on outcome.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Act on findings of the above to address areas of risk.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">What is reasonable will vary between employers of different sizes and nature of work environment, however it includes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Having sexual harassment policy in place<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Making staff aware of the policy and reporting mechanisms<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Carrying out regular training on sexual harassment<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Other steps based on risk assessment and guidance<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"pink\">Additional Resources:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">You can find out more in the following links:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><span class=\"pink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.equalityhumanrights.com\/guidance\/sexual-harassment-and-harassment-work-technical-guidance#chapter-1-what-is-harassment\" data-outlook-id=\"3fb005a9-7993-4308-9c16-02c1323c49f5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In Chapter 4: EHRC technical guidance on sexual harassment.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><span class=\"pink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.equalityhumanrights.com\/employer-8-step-guide-preventing-sexual-harassment-work\" data-outlook-id=\"5068dfb8-1486-4b5f-8be1-a4ebbec40be6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In EHRC Employer 8 Step Guide<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"pink\">Blake Morgan Solicitors Blog:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blakemorgan.co.uk\/new-duty-on-employers-to-take-reasonable-steps-to-prevent-sexual-harassment-is-imminent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment is imminent<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Do you need non-legal advice and information on this topic? Get in touch with <span class=\"pink\"><a title=\"mailto:helpline@taipawb.org\" href=\"mailto:helpline@taipawb.org\" data-outlook-id=\"ce81be13-ad71-457f-853d-c656ef0d36b2\">helpline@taipawb.org<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new proactive requirement for employers to take reasonable measures to prevent workplace sexual harassment will take effect on 26 October 2024. Whilst majority of our members will be aware of the forthcoming changes, below is a quick recap of background and what they need to consider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,127,120,121],"tags":[],"temporary-categorisation-from-im":[115],"class_list":["post-20916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employment","category-human-rights","category-legislation","category-policy","temporary-categorisation-from-im-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20916"},{"taxonomy":"temporary-categorisation-from-im","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taipawb.org\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/temporary-categorisation-from-im?post=20916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}