Sexual harassment can happen to men, women and people of any sexual orientation. It can be carried out by anyone of the same sex, another sex or anyone of any sexual orientation. Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature. The law (Equality Act 2010) protects people against sexual harassment at work.
From 26 October 2024, when the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force, employers are now required to comply with a new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees:
The law covers sexual harassment from:
- Other people at work
- Third parties – for example customers and clients
Employers must take action to assess risks and put measures in place. An employer cannot wait until sexual harassment happens. If it’s already happened, action must be taken to stop it happening again.
Important: If an employer does not take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) could take action against them. The employer might also have to pay a higher rate of compensation if an employee makes a successful claim at an employment tribunal.
Employment Rights Act 2025: From April 2026, sexual harassment disclosures are explicitly protected under UK whistleblowing law. Employees making a protected disclosure about harassment are safeguarded from detriment and unfair dismissal, whether the harassment has occurred, is ongoing, or is anticipated. Employers will be required to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent harassment, raising the threshold from the 2024 standard.
The objectives of our Sexual Violence / Harassment in the work place course includes:
- Understanding and defining sexual harassment and workplace violence
- Exploring barriers to recognise and report concerns
- Exploring impacts to individuals and organisations
- Developing strategies and exploring methods of prevention, intervention and response
Duration of course can be a lunch and learn session to a full day package to support employers in embedding training across the whole company.
Courses can be tailored to suit your organisational / team requirements.
Be sure to also check out our increasingly popular online training courses, where learning can be done remotely. To find out more, please click on the link here.
For further information about our courses, to arrange training sessions, or if you have any other enquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact us either via the contact form here or via the email link below.
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