Autumn Budget 2025: what you need to know

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issued technical guidance for employers following the enactment of the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act that came into effect on 26 October 2024.

This Act introduced a new legal duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers, known as the ‘preventative duty’. Previously, there was no proactive legal obligation for employers to prevent sexual harassment at work. Given the significant impact sexual harassment can have on an individual’s career, mental, and physical health, it was found that employers were not adequately addressing these concerns. The updated law is a welcome addition in the fight against sexual harassment.

The Act also allows for increased compensation in sexual harassment claims. If an employment tribunal finds that a worker has been sexually harassed, it must consider whether the preventative duty was met. If not, the employer can be ordered to pay up to an additional 25% in compensation.  The legislation also empowers the EHRC to take enforcement action against organisations that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, regardless of whether an incident has occurred.

The law doesn’t outline specific steps that employers must take, allowing for flexibility in how each organisation addresses the issue. However, recent guidance highlights the importance of conducting a risk assessment and reinforces that all employers are obligated to take action – no organisation is exempt from this preventative duty. The new guidelines emphasise preventing sexual harassment from any perpetrator, whether a colleague or a third-party contractor.

And the responsibility on employers is going to increase. The previous legislation was “watered down” to “reasonable steps” from the initial suggestion of “all reasonable steps”. But with the Employment Rights Bill, the obligation will become a duty to take “all reasonable steps”. Regulations will specify the steps that employers should take, such as carrying out risk assessments and implementing harassment policies and complaints procedures.