Category: sexual harassment awareness

should works Christmas Parties be BANNED ?

Christmas Parties, see by many as a moral and team building bonanza and by others as a nightmare in waiting. The big question facing all employers is should we ban them?

The opportunity to relax get to know colleagues better, team build and let off steam has clear benefits but all to often social events and especially Christmas parties turn sour.

Harassment and especially sexual harassment is common place. There is a high risk of discrimination, accessibility, diet and food, religion and faith, child care etc not to mention the health and safety risks associated with large numbers of people in unfamiliar venues.

The risks for the employer fall heavily in favour of avoiding Christmas parties all together.

There are some easy to follow approaches that can help keep everyone safe and mitigate risk. download our free guide below

Christmas Parties, reducing the risks

More Free Guides available HERE >>>>

Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work – The Law

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 now requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment.

Further it allows tribunals to increase compensation payments to victims by up to 25% if they did not take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Given that most sexual harassment cases are likely to involve discrimination, which has no compensation limits, compensation payments are likely to be substantial.

As we have seen with McDonalds the consequences go much further than monetary penalties.

All employers now need to consider if their policies and procedures are robust.

As a minimum explicit no tolerance policies will be required and employers will need to be able to evidence that they have been implemented robustly; this requires far more than writing a policy and filing it on hard drive somewhere.

All Managers and Staff will need to be trained, probably annually, and their participation evidenced.

The policies and training will need to include, as a minimum:

A clear statement that bullying, harassment and sexual harassment are prohibited
The consequences if an employee is found to have bullied or harassed another
Examples of prohibited practice – including “banter”
The action employees should take if they experience bullying and harassment; including sexual harassment
The action employees should take if they witness bullying and harassment; including sexual harassment
The action managers should take if bullying and harassment; including sexual harassment, is reported to them

The new act received royal assent on 26th October 2023 and comes into force on 26 October 2024.

Whilst this may appear some way off it is imperative that employers have everything in place as soon as possible.

Concrew Training offers Training for HR teams and management to help support the development of robust policies and procedures relating to the prevention of sexual harassment at work

and training for staff to improve their knowledge and understanding on how they can help prevent sexual harassment at work

Image:
harassment– later accusation, belated accusation, many years later by Valeriy Osipov used under CC BY 4.0

preventing sexual harassment training – updated

Not a day goes by without Sexual Harassment hitting the news.

We have updated our courses on “Sexual Harassment Awareness” and “Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work” to reflect the latest developments and legislation.

Robust policies and training, for staff and managers, alike are essential if harassment is to be stamped out and tribunal fines are to be avoided