Sexual harassment at work: Government making positive steps, but action remains a ‘missed opportunity’, says Committee

The Government will work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to introduce a statutory code of practice to tackle sexual harassment at work, following calls from the Women and Equalities Committee in its major report. However, it fails to commit, at this stage, to a new duty on employers to protect workers from harassment and victimisation, or to new sanctions for failing to comply with the code. 

In July, the Committee published Sexual harassment in the workplace, which found that the Government, regulators and employers were all failing to tackle the issue. It called for a five-point plan, including a new duty on employers to protect workers from harassment and victimisation, supported by a statutory code of practice; a greater role for regulators; improving enforcement processes for employees; cleaning up the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs); and better Government data.   

The Committee has today published the Government’s response to its report. In summary, the Government:  

• agrees that a statutory code of practice should be introduced and states that it will work with the EHRC to develop it. However, ministers have not agreed, at this stage, to introduce a duty on employers to protect workers from harassment and victimisation, or to increase sanctions for poor employer practices. 
• agrees that non-disclosure agreements require better regulation and a clearer explanation of the rights that a worker cannot abrogate by signing one and commits to consult on how best to achieve this and enforce any new provisions. 
• agrees that regulators should make it clear that workplace sexual harassment is unacceptable, and that sexual harassment should be taken into account when considering the fitness and propriety of the individuals and employers they regulate.  
• agrees that employers “should have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect their staff from third party harassment where they know that their staff are at risk” and proposes to consult on “how best to strengthen and clarify the laws in relation to third party harassment”.  
• states that it will amend whistleblowing law to make the EHRC a prescribed organisation and will consider further whether to add the police to the list. 
• agrees to work with Acas, the EHRC and employers to raise awareness of appropriate workplace behaviours and individual rights.  
• agrees to gather regular data on the prevalence and nature of workplace sexual harassment at least every three years, with a view to launching survey questions in 2019.  

Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Maria Miller MP, said:  

“Forty percent of women say they have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in the workplace. With this unacceptable statistic in mind, the Government should not have taken five months to respond.  

“I am pleased that ministers have woken up and have agreed to our recommendation of a statutory code of practice. But they have missed the opportunity to place a greater onus on employers to protect workers from harassment and to increase sanctions for poor practice. Just keeping an eye on how employment tribunals respond to the new code is inadequate.  

“The Government is placing a lot of emphasis on awareness-raising among employers and employees as a means of tackling sexual harassment. We welcome the actions it will take to raise awareness of rights and responsibilities, but it also needs to do more to show that it is taking these issues seriously. Employers need to know that they face severe penalties if they don’t do enough to protect their staff from harassment and victimisation.  

“We welcome the Government’s consultation on how best to clean up the use of NDAs, and we will keep a close eye on this issue in our new inquiry into the use of NDAs in discrimination cases, which will report in the spring.” 

ENDS 

BACKGROUND: SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE 

The Committee published its report, Sexual harassment in the workplace, on 25 July 2018. More details of the inquiry and the full report can be found here. 

The report called on the Government to:  

a) Put sexual harassment at the top of the agenda, by  

·       introducing a new duty on employers to prevent harassment, supported by a statutory code of practice outlining the steps they can take to do this; and  

·       ensuring that interns, volunteers and those harassed by third parties have access to the same legal protections and remedies as their workplace colleagues.  

b) Require regulators to take a more active role, starting by  

·       setting out the actions they will take to help tackle this problem, including the enforcement action they will take; and  

·       making it clear to those they regulate that sexual harassment is a breach of professional standards and a reportable offence with sanctions.  

c) Make enforcement processes work better for employees by  

·       setting out in the statutory code of practice what employers should do to tackle sexual harassment; and  

·       reducing barriers to taking forward tribunal cases, including by extending the time limit for submitting a claim, introducing punitive damages for employers and reducing cost risks for employees.  

d) Clean up the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), including by  

·       requiring the use of standard, plain English confidentiality clauses, which set out the meaning, limit and effect of the clause, and making it an offence to misuse such clauses; and  

·       extending whistleblowing protections so that disclosures to the police and regulators such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission are protected.  

NB: As a result of this report, the Committee launched an inquiry into the use of non-disclosure agreements – details here. 

e) Collect robust data on the extent of sexual harassment in the workplace and on the number of employment tribunal claims involving complaints of harassment of a sexual nature.