Under the Equality Act 2010, employers can be held legally responsible for sexual harassment of their staff at work, if the harassment is carried out by a colleague and the employer did not take all steps they could to prevent the harassment from happening.

Whilst the government considers this law effective, it has recognised the issues and deficiencies highlighted by the #MeToo movement in recent years.

Today is the deadline for reporting the gender pay gap. If you are a private organisation or charity with 250 or more employees, then you must report your 2018 gender pay gap figures to the Government Equalities Office by today. Failure to comply can lead to enforcement action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, as well as a potentially unlimited fine. Businesses are also required to publish those figures on their website by midnight. This is the second year that organisations are required to report their gender pay gap following changes to the Equality Act.

Last year, data on the gender pay gap submitted showed women in 78% of organisations in the UK were paid more than women, and that there is no sector where, on average, women are paid more than men. With 25%, the construction sector had the worst average gender pay gap. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will hope that the requirement to submit and make publicly available gender pay gaps will help encourage fairness and equality across all sectors.

Friday 8 March 2019 is International Women’s Day. Over the years the day has increased in significance as reports of harassment against women and workplace inequality continue to headline the news. Over the past 12 months, VinciWorks has collected accounts of people who have experienced or been witness to harassment or workplace inequality. The stories have been shared via our anti-harassment training with the full consent of the author, with their real name replaced to protect them.

Sarah’s story

It started in the interview. He asked if I was married, then if I had a boyfriend, then he just kind of smiled. The day after I started, he came over to me and sat on my desk, asked me how things were going, and that if I needed anything I could always ask. He said, ‘I’ve got my eye on you.’

Then the text messages started. ‘How was your day? What are you doing at the weekend?’ At 10pm, 11pm, after midnight even. One night I just ignored him and came in early to avoid seeing him in the carpark. But he was there waiting for me at my desk. Eventually I asked someone why he was doing this. She just shrugged and warned me that if I wanted to stay, I better not ignore him.

It really wore me down, the constant messages. I became afraid of my phone in case he would send something, afraid to look and see who it was. I did talk to HR, but they told me to ignore it. I specifically remember they said to me: ‘so you want every man who winks at a women to be afraid of the lawyers?’ As if his behaviour is my fault. Like I’m the one who has to respect his right to treat me like less than a human. And it’s not like this is happening on the street from a random stranger, this is someone who can decide on my career advancement, my salary, who can fire me.

We are now all-too familiar with stories of employees being sexually harassed or bullied at work and keeping quiet for several years in order to keep their job, or for fear of being shamed. Worryingly, the issue of being “silenced” is not unique to harassment alone. A study by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission shows that around 11% of women have been fired, made redundant or treated so badly they were left with no choice but to leave as a result of being pregnant or giving birth. Over 20% said they had experienced harassment or negative comments related to pregnancy or flexible working.

In her second installment in a series on whistleblowing, Director of U.S. Compliance Sandra Erez explores the extent to which whistleblowing methods have changed over the years. She also shares insights on how whistleblowing portals can be utilised to allow staff to easily and anonymously report suspicious or inappropriate behaviour.

Sandra takes a deep dive into the history books, starting with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis whereby the White House installed its very first hotline to “help reduce the risk of war occurring by accident or miscalculation”. The article reminds us of how whistleblowing methods have developed over time, including whistleblowing being included in legislation in the passing of the 2008 Dodd-Frank Act, further motivating employees to blow the whistle on suspected fraud and misconduct.

Read the full article

The Lawyer recently published an article highlighting some of the biggest City law firms’ lack of effort in combatting workplace harassment and bullying. In the article, these large firms are criticised for only doing the minimum, if that, to ensure workplace harassment does not go unnoticed and unidentified. When faced by The Lawyer with the question of how many people have been dismissed for inappropriate behaviour in the past year, many firms avoided answering the question.