New EHRC guidance on sexual harassment has dropped: what’s the deal?

With the Worker Protection Act 2023 set to take effect on 26 October, employers will face new expectations around proactively preventing sexual harassment in their workplace – currently, the duty is largely reactive, focused on addressing issues after they happen. The new legislation puts real emphasis on creating the right conditions to actively prevent harassment.  

Sexual harassment cases have risen by 46.5% over the past four years, which shows just how clear this need is for employers to ramp up their preventative efforts*. Plus, 55% of women believe that women in their workplace are at risk of sexual harassment, and a quarter of women said they’d witnessed sexual harassment in their workplace**.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has released updated guidance to help business owners get to grips with the changes. 

What do businesses need to do now? 

Under the new Act, employers need to take ‘reasonable steps’ for preventing sexual harassment, and failure to meet this duty could lead to penalties, including a potential 25% increase in compensation at tribunal. 

To meet these new obligations, the EHRC has suggested a few actions employers could take: 

1. Conduct regular risk assessments 
2. Engage with employees 
3. Monitor and evaluate policies 

Third-party harassment prevention 

An important part of the guidance is extending the duty of care of an employer by preventing harassment by third parties, such as clients and customers. This isn’t included in the Worker Protection Act itself, but under the change in legislation the EHRC can take action if they find evidence of non-compliance.  

The EHRC’s enforcement powers mean that non-compliance can be addressed even without a specific harassment incident, which means you need to proactively safeguard employees against harassment. 

We’ll be releasing more in-depth content on the Worker Protection Act in the coming days, but if you’d like to speak to an Employment Law expert about the changes, call us on 0345 844 1111 or fill in the form on this page to get a callback. 

*Analysis by Irwin Mitchell, 2024 
**INvovle survey, 2024