New sexual harassment laws to strengthen protections for employees will go ahead as planned next month despite sources suggesting they will be scrapped.
From 26 October 2024, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 introduces a legal duty for employers to ensure they protect workers from third-party sexual harassment.
The rules mean employers will have a “duty to take reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and that employment tribunals were able to increase compensation by up to 25% if they found an employer had breached their duty.
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The Cabinet Office has confirmed that the Worker Protection Act will come into force as planned next month after sources told Personnel Today that it was being ditched in favour of new legislation in the Employment Rights Bill, which will be tabled in mid-October.
Under the Equality Act 2010, an employer could defend a harassment claim if it showed it had taken “all reasonable steps” to prevent it from occurring in the first place. But the Worker Protection Act 2023 goes one step further, for sexual harassment only.
The requirements will not apply where other forms of harassment are alleged, such as harassment related to disability, age, religion or belief, nor would it have applied if the harassment was generally related to gender.
Labour’s “Plan to Make Work Pay” has pledged to require employers to create and maintain workplaces and working conditions free from harassment, including by third parties, saying it would “strengthen the legal duty for employers to take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment before it starts”.
The House of Lords made two amendments to the final version of the Worker Protection Bill last year, removing the proposed liability of employers for third-party harassment in the workplace and changing the requirement on employers to take “reasonable steps” rather than “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment.
First tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, the Worker Protection Act was approved by MPs in October 2023.
At the time, Hobhouse said: “I cannot stand here and say that I am completely happy with the amendments. But if I did not accept them the bill would not progress into law, and that would be a lot worse.
“The longer it takes for legislation preventing sexual harassment to become law, the more workers – especially women – will be left at risk of workplace sexual harassment – that would simply not be acceptable.”
So while the Worker Protection Act will come into force on 26 October, ministers are set to strengthen it through its Employment Rights Bill such that employers will have a duty to take “all reasonable steps” to stop sexual harassment “before it starts”.
Additional reporting by Kavitha Sivasubramaniam.
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