Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Sexual harassmentHospitalityHealth and safetyLatest NewsTrade unions

Sexual harassment: Employees have the right to protection at work

by Mike Clancy 18 Mar 2025
by Mike Clancy 18 Mar 2025 Shutterstock / Monkey Business Images
Shutterstock / Monkey Business Images

Following last month’s re-opening of Parliament’s Strangers Bar after allegations of drink-spiking, Mike Clancy considers how employers should protect their employees from sexual harassment.

The introduction of CCTV to bars on the parliamentary estate following reports of drink-spiking is a welcome move. Establishing basic security measures is a step towards equalising the safety and dignity of Parliamentary staff with the standards we expect in any other workplace, or in public life.

A step in the right direction, but not a lot to boast about. Our elected leaders should be setting standards rather than following in their wake.

This incident should act as a catalyst towards the proactive, protective culture that Westminster owes its workforce.

Parliamentary workers

Half of Parliamentary staff experiencing clinical levels of stress

Scottish Parliament staff banned from wearing rainbow lanyards

Former whips call for ‘HR department’ to deal with parliamentary allegations

Health and safety concerns

Health and safety is the bread and butter of trade union work, and rightly the issue of sexual harassment has been in the spotlight recently, not just at Westminster but across the economy.

Prospect redoubled its efforts to tackle sexual harassment in our members’ workplaces in the early days of the MeToo movement.

We have invested in training for our staff, additional legal resources, renewed policy and guidance, and a specialist advice line for members who have experienced sexual harassment at work.

Moreover, we have established ourselves as a trusted partner to employers that are serious about protecting their own staff. We have been sought out to advise executive teams on this issue, not only in organisations that recognise Prospect, but even in some that are completely new to working with trade unions.

As employers get used to the new legal duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees, I invite employers to look us up and find out how a modern union can be your best ally in this mission.

Make no mistake, though: we are built to challenge, and there is no issue on which I am more ready to challenge than workplace sexual harassment. Don’t expect shortcuts, easy checklists or empty reassurances from us.

A culture of change

Sexual harassment is a cultural dysfunction, so be prepared for the deep work of culture change. And to my fellow organisational leaders: be prepared to own it yourselves.

We advocate a principles-driven approach:

  • We recognise sexual harassment as a spectrum of behaviours, from the ubiquitous ‘banter’ and sexist jokes to the more physical and more overtly sexual types. We must put a stop to sexual harassment in all its forms.
  • Culture change is a collective endeavour. A major advantage Prospect brings to the work is our ability to offer trusted, independent mechanisms to engage the grassroots: to identify risk factors; restructure the underlying assumptions that drive culture; and define a respectful workplace culture to be collectively owned as a ‘social contract’.
  • Employers must make it their priority to support the targets. The primary lesson from the MeToo movement is that most sexual harassment goes unreported because people are not confident in their workplaces to make the situation better rather than worse. We must learn to welcome disclosures of sexual harassment as an opportunity to put things right.
  • Every member of the workforce should feel assured of robust, transparent justice, not shying away from appropriate sanctions for confirmed perpetrators. Tools such as CCTV, for use in an investigation, are not in themselves sufficient to prevent misconduct, but can play an important supporting role.

The role of leaders

Sexual harassment

EHRC warns 1,400 McDonald’s branches of legal action against harassment

Foxtons staff accuse firm of culture of harassment

New duty to prevent sexual harassment – what employers need to know

Finally, we call for strong, accountable leadership, starting at the very top.

As a leader myself, I know that my priorities inform the priorities of everyone who reports to me. There is an MIT Sloan framework that describes organisations through 3 Lenses – the strategic, the cultural and the political – each one resisting change in either of the others. We all know that culture eats strategy for breakfast, but we should also know that a programme of culture change calls for the structures of power and authority to be mission-aligned.

My personal challenge to the leaders of the organisations Prospect works with is to be prepared to own the mission to eradicate sexual harassment. Culture leadership is a responsibility that must be shared, but it cannot be delegated.

That’s a challenge that goes double for our elected leaders in Westminster. They must own the responsibility to protect their own workforce from sexual harassment, and as the general secretary of a union representing parliamentary staff, I can promise you that I am watching their every move.

They must additionally take up their responsibility to lead and embody standards for every other workplace in the country. We need a political establishment that can exert moral authority and credibility to drive positive change throughout public life.

 

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

 

HR opportunities in the public sector on Personnel Today


Browse more HR opportunities in the public sector

Mike Clancy

Mike Clancy is general secretary of the Prospect trade union. Mike was appointed as an Employment Appeal Tribunal member in 2002 and is former member of the Employment Tribunal and Central Arbitration Committee. He has held various other board positions. In December 2024 he was appointed as a Non-Executive Board member of the Department of Trade and Business. He is also a member of the TUC Executive Committee and the General Council. He has served on the Acas council since May 2016.

previous post
Pharmacies to work to rule over higher employment costs
next post
Ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting: Lessons from employers ahead of the curve

You may also like

Employers ‘worryingly’ ignorant about stress risk assessments

20 May 2025

Warning of diabetes risk for workplace drivers

11 Apr 2025

Calls growing for UK national asbestos register

4 Apr 2025

One in seven NHS staff physically attacked last...

14 Mar 2025

HSE new guidance to protect against hospital nitrous...

10 Feb 2025

Two-step testing enabling more train drivers to work...

24 Jan 2025

HSE updates guidance on silicosis risk from installing...

10 Jan 2025

Workplaces urged to revisit and refresh first aid...

6 Jan 2025

Warning of ‘catastrophic’ rise in alcohol deaths in...

20 Dec 2024

Building health: Enhancing worker safety on winter construction...

16 Dec 2024

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today