Third party harassment and extension of timelines to bring a claim also included in a new package of measures

The government’s long-awaited legislative response to MeToo has been laid out. The response to the 2018 consultation on sexual harassment in the workplace spells out sweeping plans to extend ‘failure to prevent’ laws already on the books for bribery and tax evasion to sexual harassment.

Women and Equalities minister Liz Truss, said: 

“We will be providing further protections to employees who are the victims of sexual harassment, whilst also furnishing employers with the motivation and support to put in place practises and policies which respond to the needs of their organisation.”

The package of measures will include a new preventative duty on employers, a duty to protect employees from sexual harassment by third parties such as customers, criminalisation of street harassment, a statutory code of practice for employers on how to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace, and potentially extending the time allowed to bring a sexual harassment case to an employment tribunal from three to six months. 

Sexual harassment and privacy rules in force in 2021

Effective as of January 1, 2021, Article 1010 of the Civil Code obliges companies to adopt measures for preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. This means employers have a duty to take action against sexual harassment. This includes:

• Having a channel to complain about sexual harassment
• Having a procedure for investigating complaints
• Having rules to discipline wrongdoers

What does the law say?

Article 1010 of the Code stipulates that:

“Where a person sexually harasses another person against his or her will through verbal behavior, words, images, physical behavior, or other forms, the victim has the right to request the perpetrator to assume civil liability according to the law.

Government agencies, enterprises, schools and other entities shall take reasonable measures of prevention, acceptance of complaints, investigation and handling, so as to prevent and cease sexual harassment conducted by violators by making use of their powers, supervisor/subordinate relationships, etc.”

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.