Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work
All employees should be able to work without fear of being sexually harassed.
Workplace harassment has regularly made the headlines in recent years. It’s a high-profile issue, and one which can lead to a breakdown in employee relations, employee ill-health, legal liability and significant reputational damage.
Employers are already liable for harassment that occurs “in the course of their employment” by their staff and others under their control, unless they can show that they took all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Since October 2024, employers have also been under a positive legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. Despite this, sexual harassment remains widespread and persistent.
To strengthen this duty further, the Employment Rights Act 2025 will require employers, from October 2026, to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment – a much higher bar to meet.
This guide will help you understand what is changing and acts as a practical toolkit to support you.
Workplace harassment: the stats
Three-quarters of people who responded had experienced sexual harassment at work.*
Around half of those hadn’t reported their experience of harassment to anyone in the workplace.*
The most common perpetrator of harassment was a senior colleague. However, third-party harassment was also high on the list.*
Economic consequences for employers include negative engagement and productivity from staff, which in turn can undermine organisational effectiveness and cause damage to an employer’s public reputation.*
Since 2019, cases related to sexual harassment in Employment Tribunals across England, Wales and Scotland have increased by 46.5% - rising from 114 in 2019 to 167 in 2023.**
The upward trend appears to be continuing into 2024, with 116 cases reported in the first eight months of the year. This significant finding comes just one month before the new Worker Protection Act 2023 takes effect.**
*Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2018
**Irwin Mitchell analysis of of all Employment Tribunal decisions across England, Wales, & Scotland, 2024
The Worker Protection Act 2023
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force on 26 October 2024. It introduced a new positive legal duty on all employers to take reasonable steps to protect their staff from being sexually harassed at work.
Employers who fail to meet this duty face additional financial risk. If the victim wins their case and is awarded compensation, the tribunal can increase this by up to 25%. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) can also take enforcement action against employers.
What about third-party harassment?
Some working environments put employees at greater risk of sexual harassment by third parties than others. The duty includes taking positive steps to prevent staff from being sexually harassed by third parties such as customers, contractors on site, clients or service users.
If employers know that their staff are at risk of third-party and turn a blind eye, claims may be made against them. While an employee cannot currently bring a claim against their employer for the act of the third party itself, this will change from October 2026. From that date, employers will also become liable where a third-party harasses a member of staff in the course of employment. This new liability is not limited to sexual harassment and will apply to other protected characteristics as well.
What is “in the course of employment”?
This extends far beyond an employee’s contractual hours or place of work. It could include any situation related to work such as:
- A social event that is organised by work
- Work related social media groups
- Matters against anyone outside of a work situation where the incident may negatively impact the business' reputation or is relevant to the employee's suitability to carry out their role
- Attendance at conferences
- Potentially also online activity which is seen by colleagues and impacts on workplace relationships.
What ‘all reasonable steps’ do you need to take to prevent sexual harassment?
The new legislation will require you to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment which is a high standard. You must be proactive, considering in advance where risk lies in your business and reassess this risk if incidents occur. Each organisation will have different challenges and risks, and will need to decide how best to reduce these.
To find out more about what this means in practice, click on the other tabs in this guide to find out more. In addition to this general guidance, we can support you with advice and training to help you implement this guidance. We’re working with organisations to support them through the specific issues and risks they face and we’re here to help you too. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss.
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