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Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act) Act 2023: preparing for Great Britain’s new ‘reasonable steps’ duty to prevent sexual harassment—compliance, tribunal uplifts and EHRC enforcement from October 2024

Published on: 19 January 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Employment expert

Legal News

Article summary

Prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace

Spurred by the MeToo movement, tackling sexual harassment at work has moved up the agenda for a range of sectors and industries, for employers generally, and across political parties. In turn, employers have shifted culturally in how they perceive and address allegations, responding in a far more proactive and forceful way...

While clear strides have been made, the government (and any future Labour government) accepts there is more to achieve. The data bears this out: in 2023 the Fawcett Society reported that 40% of women encounter sexual harassment in the workplace...

To drive more active prevention by employers, the government has passed the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act) Act 2023. This legislation creates a new duty on employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to stop the sexual harassment of their employees, as defined by the Equality Act 2010, during the course of their employment. The Act is scheduled to take effect in October 2024...

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