Employers are to be compelled to better protect their employees from sexual harassment in the workplace as well as be made liable for harassment by third parties under a new bill in Parliament.

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill will make employers liable for harassment of their employees by third parties, such as clients, where the employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment. These protections would apply to all acts of third-party harassment in the workplace, for example racial as well as sexual harassment.

Until 2013, there was liability for the harassment of employees by third parties. This liability came under a ‘three strikes rule’ and was scrapped completely in 2013 as it was deemed unworkable and an unnecessary burden on employers. The new legislation will not a see a return of the ‘three strikes rule’.

Furthermore, this Bill also introduces a duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to pro-actively prevent sexual harassment at work. Instead of employers being relieved of liability for their employees if they have taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent employees carrying out acts of harassment, the Bill imposes a positive duty on employers to take such steps.

Employment tribunals would be given the power to apply an uplift of up to 25% on tribunal awards where the duty to prevent harassment had not been complied with by an employer.

Find out more about the bill here.

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