Employers will be forced to publish sexual harassment action plans or risk being named and shamed under new government proposals.
On 26 October 2024, a new statutory duty, part of the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, was introduced, making employers legally required to proactively prevent sexual harassment from occurring in their workplaces – both by colleagues and third parties.
Now, further changes could see businesses publishing annual action plans to minimise the risk of sexual harassment within the workplace.
Highlighting the proposals, GQ Littler warned that the extra red tape is hard to navigate, as well as likely to be both time-consuming and expensive for businesses.
Sexual harassment duties
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The specialist employment law firm says they would add to the requirements on employers under the new legislation that is now in force, which suggests employers carry out risk assessments to prevent sexual harassment.
In the government’s impact assessment on the Employment Rights Bill, it proposes that businesses with more than 250 employees should produce and publish their annual action to prevent sexual harassment and that doing so would be “good practice”.
The document further recommends that employers that do not publish their plans are included on a “name and shame” list.
Natasha Adom, partner and head of client training at GQ Littler, told Personnel Today: “If they go ahead as planned, under new proposals, employers with over 250 employees will be required to not only produce action plans explaining the steps they are taking to reduce the risk of sexual harassment but also to publicly publish them. Businesses that fail to do so are likely to be named and shamed on the gender pay reporting website.”
Explaining that employers should prepare now for these new obligations, she added: “It is important to remember risk assessments are not static – employers should look to keep the steps they are taking under review periodically and look at them again if an incident of sexual harassment happens.”
The firm warned that failure to comply could lead to serious reputational damage, highlighting that tackling sexual harassment is a priority area for the Equality and Human Rights Commission – the regulator for the Equality Act – which has recently taken enforcement action against large employers.
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