Duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Act introduces a duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the workplace. The Act will come into force on 26 October 2024 (a year after its passage).

The Act amends the Equality Act 2010 to introduce a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. It also gives employment tribunals the power to increase compensation by up to 25% where an employer is found to have breached the new duty to prevent sexual harassment. The new duty will sit alongside employees’ existing protections from sexual harassment in the EqA 2010.

Under the Act, employers must take ‘reasonable steps’ to protect employees from sexual harassment. Wera Hobhouse MP, who sponsored the Bill, stated that the new duty ‘will still send a strong signal to employers that they need to take action to prioritise prevention of sexual harassment and ultimately improve workplace practices and cultures’.

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Authors

Daniel Hobbs

Call 1998

Related areas

Employment

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