Sexual harassment at work and the Equality Act 2010
[ch 2: page 15]The EA 10 is the main source of legal rights to protection from sexual harassment at work. The power of the EA 10 to change employer behaviour was greatly diminished by the government’s introduction in 2013 of very substantial tribunal fees. A tribunal claim to challenge sexual harassment at work attracted a fee of £1,200, with further fees for any appeal. The introduction of fees led to an 80% collapse in the number of sex discrimination claims, representing, in the words of general secretary Frances O’Grady, “a huge victory for Britain’s worst bosses”.
The abolition of fees through the Supreme Court victory of public services union UNISON (R (UNISON) v The Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51) has restored the wider deterrent role of the EA 10, as a setter of norms for good employer behaviour. Once again, employers who break the law by allowing sexual harassment to persist at their workplace face a realistic prospect of legal action.