Third party harassment: Are you protecting your staff adequately? - July 2008
For the past 3 months employers have been grappling with the onerous new provisions that oblige them to protect their employees from sexual harassment by third parties.
Prior to 6 April 2008 employers have assumed responsibility for the harassment of their employees if that harassment was by another member of staff. The new legislation (Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Amendment) regulations 2008) makes employers liable for harassment perpetrated by customers, clients, suppliers, contractors and other third parties. The law is still young and the full impact has yet to be felt, however it is clear that certain industry sectors are affected more than others. Statistics reveal that sexual harassment by customers is common-place in the female dominated sectors of retail and hospitality.
How the law works
The employer is treated as subjecting an employee to harassment where the third party subjects the woman/man to harassment in the course of their employment, and the employer has failed to take reasonably practicable steps to protect the employee from that third-party harassment, and the harassment is known to have occurred on at least two other occasions.
More difficult still is that the third-party harasser does not have to be the same individual on each occasion.
What the employer can do:
To defend claims for sexual harassment businesses will have to demonstrate that they have anticipated such circumstances and have taken measures that are reasonably practicable to prevent the harassment.The nature of those measures will, to an extent, depend on the type of work involved, the nature of the work premises and the risk of third party harassment. However all businesses, and not just those that employ client-facing staff, will want to ensure they can deal with this matter adequately.
Some employers have already made visible efforts to address the issue by displaying prominent customer notices displaying the firm's harassment policy and making it clear that harassment by third parties is not tolerated. London Underground has set out its policy in this way.
Employers should therefore review and update their harassment policies, ensuring they have necessary procedures and safeguards in place to protect employees. These will include
- rules and procedures for reporting/dealing with allegations of harassment
- provision of training for staff on how to deal with potentially difficult conversations with third parties
- informing third parties of the organisation’s harassment policy
At the present time the legislation applies only to sexual harassment, however under the Equality Bill, the Government may choose to review the harassment provisions in relation to the other forms of discrimination legislation (race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age).
Please contact us on 020 7420 7020 or enquiry@sethlovis.co.uk for further advice.