The House of Lords has recently revised the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill, which is currently in the final stages before receiving Royal Assent. Two key changes have been made: firstly, removing the proposed third party harassment provisions; and secondly, watering down the duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment.
The re-introduction of protection against third party harassment was one of the most significant elements of the Bill. Between 2008 and 2013, employers had a limited duty to protect employees from third party harassment. For liability to arise, there needed to have been three separate instances of harassment by a third party against an employee, and the employer needed to have known about the harassment and failed to prevent it. The new proposals re-introduced this duty, but took it further by requiring no previous instances of harassment for an employer to be liable.
These provisions have now been entirely removed, meaning that an employer’s duty towards its employees in respect of third party harassment will not change (and an employer will not be liable towards employees for harassment by third parties). The reasons given by the House of Lords for this change included the costs to businesses, inhibiting free speech and excessive state intervention in business.
Originally, the Bill required employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the workplace. The word “all” has now been removed, requiring employers to simply take “reasonable steps”. The House of Lords expressed concerns that the original duty was too onerous, as it would have given rise to an “almost infinite” amount of steps for an employer to take.
Georgina Burrows comments:
“Although the changes to the Bill water down an employer’s obligations, the Bill is still important and employers should take care to address any concerns appropriately and support employees in the workplace. Even though there continues to be no express duty to prevent harassment by third parties, employers cannot simply ignore this issue, and they may still be liable for discrimination/harassment if they fail to address an employee’s complaint of harassment by a third party. Additionally, although the Bill now requires employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment (as opposed to “all reasonable steps”), employers must still take this new duty seriously and do what it reasonably can to protect its employees and tackle sexual harassment in the workplace.”
If you have any questions regarding the Worker Protection Bill, or need any advice on preventing third party harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace, please contact a member of the team here.
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