On Oct. 27, UKP reported new worker protection, equality act passed.
UKP announced the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023(WP(AEA 2010)A 2023 (UK)) was granted royal assent on Oct. 26, 2023.
To make provision for employer duties under the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010 (UK)).
Background
Bill proposed liability on employers for harassment of their employees by third parties.
E.g, by a customer, client, supplier, contractor, such that an employee could be harassed by overhearing an offensive conversation, but this was removed in final act.
Also proposed proactive duty for employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their workforce, e.g. manager and staff training, robust complaint response procedures; word all was subsequently removed from the act as passed.
New Measures
But the act does go further than existing legal obligations with the new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.
It also gives Employment Tribunal the power to uplift sexual harassment compensation by up to 25%, should an employer be found to have breached this new duty.
Reasonable steps test may be met by requiring employees to complete internal sexual harassment training, or introducing/strengthening existing anti-harassment policies.
What will be considered reasonable will be fact specific and depend on employer size and its resources, so prior to the act taking effect, employers may want to consider making their anti-harassment policies and internal training more robust and bespoke.
These are factors the Employment Tribunal will consider when awarding compensation.
Effectiveness
Act is expected to take effect 1 year after receiving royal assent, i.e. Oct. 26, 2024.
