– It’s a crucial piece of legislation aimed at safeguarding workers from harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

– The Act imposes new obligations on employers to take proactive steps to prevent harassment, including from third parties.

– This law is designed to strengthen and expand existing protections, ensuring that the workplace is safer and more inclusive for everyone.

– Employers will have a new preventative duty to actively protect employees from harassment, including harassment by third parties.

– They’ll need to take reasonable steps to prevent such behaviour, meaning employers can’t simply react after an incident but must work to prevent it from happening in the first place.

– There’s also a focus on sexual harassment, placing an obligation on employers to ensure proper policies and training are in place to address this.

Currently the law only provides a course of action for workers to bring a claim – this places a positive duty on employers and is only in relation to this protected characteristic and no others.

– The preventative duty means employers must actively work to stop harassment before it occurs.

– Reasonable steps could include conducting regular risk assessments,  providing regular training, having clear anti-harassment policies, and ensuring robust grievance procedures are in place. Employers will have to really look at the risks in their businesses and assess what measures need to be taken to reduce these.

– It’s about creating a culture where harassment isn’t tolerated and staff feel confident raising issues if they arise and know that their employer will support them and deal with issues fairly and promptly.

Employers should take care to schedule regular reviews of these policies and their effectiveness as well as refresher training at least bi annually.

– The preventative duty only applies to sexual harassment that takes place in the course of employment.

– However, unlike other forms of discrimination where third party harassment was abolished – this preventative duty extends to third-party harassment, meaning employers are responsible if their employees are sexually harassed by clients, customers, or others who aren’t directly employed by them such as workers, agents, suppliers, and other third parties.

There could be significant financial penalties if employers are found liable, as well as reputational damage as any breach of the new preventative measures could result in a 25% uplift in the level of compensation available to the worker in the Employment Tribunal.

– Breaching the duty is a civil offence, not a criminal one, meaning employers can face claims from employees in the ETin the usual way under section 26(2) of the Equality Act 2010.

– In some professions, a breach could lead to investigations by regulatory bodies, potentially resulting in being struck off or disciplinary action. For example lawyers have a regulatory obligation where this could be relevant.

– For employees, it means greater protection from sexual harassment and a clearer path to report issues if they arise.

– It puts an emphasis on creating safer, more inclusive workplaces where their concerns are taken seriously.

– Employees should feel more confident that their employer will take steps to prevent harassment, rather than just dealing with it after it’s happened.

– The Act is being introduced to close gaps in the current legislation, particularly around third-party harassment, which wasn’t adequately addressed before.

– There’s a growing recognition that workplaces need to be more proactive in tackling sexual harassment, not just reactive.

– It’s about fostering better workplace environments where everyone feels respected and safe.

– Employers should start identifying where in the business is more high risk and who might be affected by these risks

Then they should review their policies on harassment and discrimination, making sure they’re up-to-date and robust. (We recommend doing these first two stages with Senior HR decision makers and lawyers before moving to the training stages.)

– They should implement regular training for all staff, particularly management, on recognising and addressing harassment generally but with a focus on sexual harassment. All managers should be trained on how to handle these kinds of issues when they arise in the workplace.

– Having clear, accessible policies especially a grievance procedures is key, and they must ensure employees know where to go and who to talk to if they experience harassment as well as what support is available.

– The Act focuses on sexual harassment only and doesn’t cover broader workplace issues like other forms of harrassment, bullying or unfair treatment unless they fall under the protected characteristics of the Equality Act.

– It doesn’t apply to everyday workplace disputes that don’t relate to sexual harassment .

– Employers still have broader obligations under employment law, but this Act zeroes in on sexual harassment specifically.

– It places a positive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, meaning they can’t wait for incidents to occur—they need to act before problems arise.

– Vulnerable groups, who are often disproportionately affected by sexual harassment, will have greater protection as employers must show they’ve taken reasonable steps to create a safer environment.

– The inclusion of third-party harassment is significant, especially for employees in customer-facing roles or industries with external interactions where sexual harassment might go under the radar.

– Employers will need to ensure their anti-harassment policies are comprehensive and regularly updated to reflect their new preventative duties.

– Grievance procedures will need to be clear, well-publicised, and encourage employees to come forward without fear of retaliation.

– Companies should review how complaints are handled to ensure they’re dealt with quickly, fairly, and effectively.

– It’s likely we’ll see an uptick in litigation as employees become more aware of their rights under the new Act.

– Employers who fail to prepare and implement the necessary risk assessment, policies updates and training may find themselves vulnerable to claims of higher values than before.

– However, litigation may also act as a wake-up call for employers to take their obligations seriously and make the necessary changes therefore creating much more inclusive workplaces.

– The new duty is proactive, not just reactive—it’s not enough to handle complaints as they come; employers must take steps to prevent harassment before it happens.

– This is a shift from the previous approach, where employers were mainly judged on how they responded to incidents, rather than how they worked to prevent them.

– It requires regular risk assessments and training, a strong culture of respect, and clear communication of policies to all staff.

– I believe it will, but only if employers take the duty seriously and embed these values into their workplace culture.

– It’s an opportunity to create a more inclusive and supportive environment, where everyone feels protected and respected.

– The key will be in how proactively employers approach their obligations—real change happens when the culture shifts from top to bottom.