At the end of last week, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill passed its final stage in the House of Commons and should receive royal assent before the end of the year. Once in force, it will require employers to prevent sexual harassment from happening in their workplaces.
However, in the process of passing through the two Houses of Parliament, the proposed protections were diluted significantly. As originally drafted, the legislation would have:
- Imposed a mandatory duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment;
- Given employment tribunals the power to award an uplift of 25% to an employee’s compensation where the employer was found to have breached the new duty; and
- Introduced protection against harassment of employees by third parties (such as customers and clients), so that employers could be liable if they failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent a third party from harassing an employee.
Following a parliamentary debate earlier this year, the bill was amended to remove:
- The proposed third-party harassment protection with the result that employers will not now be liable for third party harassment of their employees, and;
- The duty for employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment was replaced with a requirement to take “reasonable steps”.
In effect, these amendments mean that the law in relation to third-party harassment stays the same as it has been since 1 October 2013.
The law was brought forward as a Private Members’ Bill by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, supported by the gender equality campaign organisation, the Fawcett Society.
According to Fawcett, the new law will create a “preventative duty” on employers requiring them to provide clear policies, training, and proper, impartial investigations into reported harassment.
Rachel Ellis of Thompsons Solicitors commented that: “Although this is a step forwards, it is disappointing that the new law was watered down during its passage through parliament. As is stands, employees harassed by a third party at work have limited rights and this legislation does little to change that”.