Employers across Worcestershire will soon face stricter responsibilities to safeguard staff from sexual harassment.

This stems from the introduction of new legislation on Saturday, October 26.

The warning was issued by employment specialist Sally Morris, partner at Worcester-based mfg Solicitors, who said the new legislation mandates that employers must actively prevent sexual harassment.

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Failure to comply could result in action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Ms Morris urged bosses to understand their responsibilities under The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality) Act 2023.

She said: "Employers have always had a duty to protect their employees from discrimination but these new laws put more onerous obligations on companies to shield their staff with regards to sexual harassment.

"This legislation will introduce a mandatory duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.

"Vitally, a failure to do so will mean that Employment Tribunals can award an uplift of up to 25 per cent to an employee’s discrimination compensation where it finds that there has been a breach of the duty.

"That’s a real game changer."

The new legislation is being introduced following concerns that workers currently receive inadequate protection against sexual harassment.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has made it clear that employers must take reasonable steps to prevent this type of harassment in the workplace both among their own staff and by third parties.

According to Ms Morris, reasonable steps could include introducing a specific Sexual Harassment Policy, training staff in relation to sexual harassment, providing support services to complainants, and carrying out assessments to identify areas of risk.

She added: "Employers will need to take steps to prevent sexual harassment taking place and put further measures in place to stop it happening again where it discovers that it has already done so.

"What is considered ‘reasonable’ will vary from employer to employer and depend on factors such as size and resource of the employer, the sector the employer operates in, the working environment, the risk present in the workplace, and the types of third parties workers may come into contact with."