The government has recently passed new legislation to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Solicitor, Cerys Cousins, takes a look at the new duty, outlines what has changed, and provides some advice on how schools can make sure they are compliant.
“Sexual harassment in the workplace is already prohibited under the Equality Act 2010. If conduct is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, it does not matter whether that conduct was intended to cause distress or not, as long as the conduct has the effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Whether or not it has that effect depends on the victim’s perspective and whether their reaction is reasonable in all of the circumstances.
On 26 October 2024 the long awaited and debated proactive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment became a reality with the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 coming into force. It is important that schools are aware of its introduction…”