The duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees has been in place for almost a year now, coming into force on 26 October 2024.
Bullying, harassment and sexual harassment, in particular, remain an important topic of conversation and regularly feature in the media.
Following a recent report by Harriet Harman KC in relation to bullying and sexual harassment faced by barristers, the topic has received significant media attention.
In her foreword to the report, Baroness Harman wrote, “[t]he problem is the culture of impunity for those at the top who commit misconduct. Those who are subjected to it feel unable to complain. All the jeopardy is on them.”
This report was focused on the conduct of barristers and the judiciary. It included bullying as well as sexual harassment, but sexual harassment is a far wider problem which reaches into all industries.
This fear of reporting someone more senior is something that all employers will need to seek to prevent to comply with their duties.
Survey results show the scale of the problem
On 8 July 2025, Unite released the results of a survey it undertook in relation to sexual harassment in the workplace.
The union polled women working across all 19 sectors represented by Unite on whether they had experienced sexual harassment whilst at work, travelling to work or from a colleague, which included both in and out of working hours.
The survey “found 56 per cent had been the recipient of sexually offensive jokes, 55 per cent had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks, over four in 10 (43 per cent) had been inappropriately touched and over a quarter (28 per cent) had been shared or shown pornographic images by a manager, colleague or third party.
Out of those who had been sexually harassed at work, in most cases, it was not a one-off instance.
Almost half (48 per cent) had it happen more than twice, while over a third (36 per cent) had experienced it more than once. However, three quarters (75 per cent) of respondents did not report these incidents, meaning many perpetrators are left free to offend again”.
Despite employers being under a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of employees, “Unite’s survey found just 26 per cent of respondents felt their employer had done enough to promote a sexual harassment zero-tolerance culture within the workplace, while 34 per cent did not believe there was a zero-tolerance approach to this behaviour at their place of work”.
Despite the Unite survey focusing on women, it is important to note that it is not only women who suffer sexual harassment, although they are the most commonly affected.
The Employment Rights Bill
As currently drafted, the Employment Rights Bill will take the duty on employers further, as they will be required to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.
It is expected that this will come into force in October 2026.
The Government will have the power to specify in regulations (which are not yet available) what will be regarded as the reasonable steps an employer should take, or has failed to take, to prevent sexual harassment.
What do employers need to do to prevent more cases?
Employers should carefully consider what steps they should be taking to ensure that they meet the current duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees.
The reasonable steps employers should take to comply with the duty are not prescribed, but the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has provided non-statutory guidance.
This guidance is an eight-step guide and sets out various things for employers to consider.
This includes the requirement for an effective anti-harassment policy, the need to make all workers aware of how they can report sexual harassment, the policy itself and the consequences of breaching the policy. It also deals with risk assessments.
It is a good idea to provide training for all workers, including managers and senior staff, on what amounts to sexual harassment, what employees should do if they experience it or witness it and how to handle any complaints.
Employers should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the actions they have taken to prevent sexual harassment and implement any changes arising from the evaluation.
This should be done periodically, and if any concerns regarding sexual harassment have been raised.
It is important that employers ensure that they have all of this in place to comply with the reasonable steps requirement.
Employers will also need to consider what else they can do to prevent sexual harassment, taking into account the fact that from next year, the duty is likely to become the more onerous all reasonable steps requirement.
For further advice on preventing sexual harassment in your place of work, get in touch with our employment law team.