UK Employers Face New Duty to Prevent Sexual Harassment

Employers in the United Kingdom will be required to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment under a new law set to take effect Oct. 26, 2024, a year after its approval.

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, to be enforced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), will create a duty for all employers to actively prevent harassment.

“Despite existing protections, evidence shows that workplace sexual harassment remains widespread, often goes unreported and is inadequately addressed by employers,” the EHRC said in a release after the law received Royal Assent.

The EHRC plans to update sexual harassment technical guidance, outlining the steps employers should take to comply.

Active Steps Required

Current law provides a defense to companies that can demonstrate they took “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment from taking place, said Louise Skinner and Cary Marshall, attorneys with Morgan Lewis in London, in an email. The law effective in October will impose a new duty on employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, but they will not be required to take “all reasonable steps.”

“Accordingly, while it has long been advisable to take steps to protect employees from sexual harassment, the law will now go a step further and require employers to take positive action to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace,” they said.

While the new law doesn’t specifically include protection from harassment from third parties, such as clients or customers, it requires employers to offer protection from sexual harassment during the course of employment, Skinner and Marshall added.

“Importantly, this phrase covers activities outside the workplace including, for example, work drinks or offsite events, and it has been suggested that it may be wide enough to catch sexual harassment by third parties,” they said.

Bill sponsors had sought to strengthen protection for employees by requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, including harassment from third ​parties, Skinner and Marshall noted. As the bill moved through Parliament, however, “these proposals were watered down in response to concerns that the word ‘all’ placed too great a burden on employers,” they said.

Guidance to Be Issued

The EHRC hasn’t provided guidance yet on what would constitute “reasonable steps” or how this requirement might be interpreted differently from “all reasonable steps,” Skinner and Marshall noted.

While employees won’t be allowed to bring free-standing claims alleging breach of the new duty, a claim for breach can be made alongside a claim for sexual harassment in the Employment Tribunal, the Morgan Lewis lawyers explained.

If an employee succeeds in a claim for sexual harassment and an employer is found to have breached its duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment, the Employment Tribunal can increase any compensation awarded to the employee by up to 25 percent.

Enhancing compensation by up to 25 percent for employers who breach this new duty could prove costly, as compensation awarded in the most serious sexual harassment case can exceed 50,000 pounds, noted Christina Leung, an attorney with Pennington Manches Cooper in Guildford, England, in a November 2023 blog post.

The new duty will apply to all employers in England, Wales and Scotland but not to those in Northern Ireland, said Jenny Allan, an attorney with GQ Littler in London.

Employers should ensure their anti-harassment policies and training programs are up-to-date and that their employees are familiar with them, can access them readily, and know what to do if they experience or witness sexual harassment at work, Allan added.

Employers should also stay on the lookout for the EHRC’s updated guidance on sexual harassment as a useful resource for stress-testing their practices before October, she said.

Compliance Tips

Skinner and Marshall said that employers should take action to ensure they will be able to comply with the new duty, including:

• Reviewing, updating and recirculating anti-harassment policies.
• Conducting updated and tailored harassment prevention training.
• Ensuring there is a clear reporting path for any complaints and that employees know how to access this framework.
• Promptly responding to and addressing any concerns that are raised.
• Carrying out new risk assessments.

Dinah Wisenberg Brin is a reporter and writer in Philadelphia.