How can the law help?

Introduction

The main source of legal rights to protection from sexual harassment at work is the Equality Act 2010 (EA 10). This chapter summarises these rights and refers to technical guidance produced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The EHRC’s January 2020 guidance, Sexual harassment and harassment at work, is not a statutory Code and, therefore, employment tribunals are not obliged to take the guidance into account. But it can be used as evidence in legal proceedings. The government has said it will make the guidance legally binding in due course.

Depending on the circumstances, sexual harassment could also infringe other laws, including health and safety and employment law, as set out at the end of this chapter.

Unions and equalities campaign groups say the law on sexual harassment at work is not strong enough. As the Fawcett Society gender equality campaign explains, there is no legal duty on employers to take proactive action to prevent harassment happening in their workplaces. Instead, the onus is on the victim to report it to their employer after the harassment has happened.

This chapter also examines demands for changes to the law, government commitments to strengthen the law, and recent and forthcoming legal developments. It also sets out key and recent case law on sexual harassment.