October marked the first anniversary of the enhanced laws protecting workers against harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace.
The ones where you have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent it; with further penalties where harassment occurs and your preventative measures are found wanting.
Recent analysis of Acas call data in the first six months of this year (so shortly after the introduction of the Worker Protection Act), found that they had risen from 4,001 to 5,583 when compared to the same period the year before. It is not clear yet how this is translating into employment tribunal rulings – it is too early.
The forthcoming and expansive Employment Rights Bill is set to make the obligations on employers more onerous still.
Harassment and sexual harassment law in 2025
The law change in October 2024 required you to anticipate when sexual harassment (or any harassment) might occur and take reasonable steps to prevent it. If it occurs anyway, you should take further steps to prevent it from happening again.
Before a claim can be made against you for your preventative duties, harassment or sexual harassment must have occurred and your employee brought a claim in an employment tribunal.
If they are successful, the judge will automatically assess whether you are guilty of also failing to take reasonable preventative steps. If they adjudicate that you were, then they can uplift the compensation by up to 25%.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) can also directly enforce this law.
What further changes will happen?
As you probably know, the Employment Rights Bill is wide-ranging. It is being implemented in different stages over three years, starting in 2025. The measures pertinent to this topic will mainly be introduced in 2026. They are as follows:
From April 2026, reporting sexual harassment will be explicitly included within whistleblowing legislation.
From October 2026, the word “ALL” is being added to the preventative requirement – “All reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment.”
From October 2026, your liability will be extended to include third party harassment and sexual harassment.
The use of NDAs will be restricted so that they cannot prevent workers from disclosing harassment or discrimination. A date has not been set for this.
By adding the word “ALL” to the preventative requirement, it beefs up what is expected. But there is currently no definition of what reasonable steps should be. This may be addressed in the future after consultation.
What should you be doing now?
Having a harassment and sexual harassment policy is a must. It sets out what acceptable behaviour is in black and white and gives you the framework to investigate and discipline where necessary. Any tribunal judge would take a dim view where this was not present.
Keeping a risk assessment on file and demonstrable employee training on the subject are good, proactive ideas too. Training can educate employees in how to behave, how to respond as a victim and how to intervene as a witness or manager.
Depending on the nature of your business, visible signs saying that harassment and sexual harassment are not acceptable may be appropriate too – particularly in public facing businesses such as in hospitality.
To get ready for third-party liability, all the above should be reviewed to ensure it reflects this upcoming change. More specifically you might look at putting harassment clauses into contracts with suppliers to further protect against third-party liability.
If your business needs support managing the changes to harassment rules, we can help.
Contact The HR Dept Durham, Newcastle & Northumberland North on 0191 2838 732 or diane.mactavish@hrdept.co.uk to discuss it further.