Your workplace should be a safe space, free from sexual harassment.
As of 26th October 2024, the law is changing to help further protect employees against sexual harassment in the workplace. This does not just include sexual harassment by other employees, but also customers, suppliers, or anyone else an employee may interact with at work.
This legislation is:
Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023
Employers must take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment taking place in the workplace, including completing risk assessments to help stop incidents of sexual harassment taking place. This may include having strong communication channels, whistle blowing policies, and developing workplace cultures from senior leadership down so that everyone is aware of how they can contribute to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
What defines sexual harassment?
Acas (the UK’s national organisation for resolving workplace disputes) defines sexual harassment as unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature, which can either violate someone’s dignity or create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for someone. This also includes if the behaviour causes one of these effects but was not intended, or if it was intended even if it did not have that effect.
Help and support:
Apprentices
If you are a WEBS apprentice with concerns about sexual harassment in the workplace, whether with yourself or somebody else at work, please speak to one of our safeguarding officers – Lorraine Jameson, James Woolley, or Sharon Hearst.
We will help you with the next steps and provide support and guidance.
If you are more comfortable speaking to your Training Officer first, then please do and they will support you in speaking to our Safeguarding team.
Employers
If you need help or support within implementing this new legislation, please see this helpful link from Make UK below:
