What is the Worker Protection Act 2023?
The Worker Protection Act 2023 comes into force in October 2024. The act will create a legal duty on employers to actively prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The act will serve as an amendment to the Equality Act 2010.
The new act introduces the requirement that “an employer must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of [its] employees in the course of their employment”. This includes when employees are working outside of their normal workplace and at workplace social events which will be considered an extension of the workplace under the act.
Only an employee experiencing and reporting an incident of sexual harassment can claim that an employer has failed in their preventative duty. Employees will not be able to make a standalone claim against their employer for a breach of the preventative duty.
What impact will the Worker Protection Act have?
Employer
- The act provides an obligation on employers to implement ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment of its employees. Employers may need to review their current policies and implement changes to ensure ‘reasonable steps’ for prevention have been taken.
- It introduces the power to increase employee compensation by up to 25% if the employer has breached the preventative duty.
Employees
- An employee will be able to hold an employer to account for failure in their preventative duty.
- Increases the scope of repercussions and accountability in the event of an upheld case of sexual harassment.
What actions should employers take before the Act comes into force?
- Review any policies and procedures – employers should ensure that they have a sexual harassment policy in place. As well as this, it is essential that policies are clearly communicated to employees and that employers ensure policies are routed within the workplace.
- Engaging, training and developing your employees – employees should receive training on how to address sexual harassment – either as a victim, bystander or manager. By refreshing this training on a regular basis, it will help embed an employer’s “zero tolerance” approach. Training should also be tailored to different audiences taking into account the employee’s roles and responsibilities in reporting and tackling sexual harassment.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Employment team if you have any questions or need advice on this area.
