Chair: Emma Whiting, Torque Law LLP

Adam Willoughby of Broadway House Chambers and Charlotte Middleton of Knights will look at the new duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace arising from the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 which comes into force on 26 October 2024.

This is a mandatory duty on employers to positively take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment.

We will consider the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) updated technical guidance on the scope of this new duty. Key areas of focus are to highlight that the new duty is preventative and anticipatory. Employers should not wait until an incident of sexual harassment has taken place before they take any action. The duty requires that employers should anticipate scenarios when its workers may be subject to sexual harassment and take action to prevent such harassment taking place.

In particular, we will discuss what action employers should be taking NOW to ensure that they are compliant. Breaching the new duty enables the EHRC to take enforcement action against the employer (s.40A(3)) and if an individual succeeds in a claim for sexual harassment and is awarded compensation, an Employment Tribunal must consider whether the employer has complied with the preventative duty. If it considers the preventative duty has been breached, it can increase compensation by up to 25% (s.124A).