Forms of harassment

Where harassment is linked to a “protected characteristic” under the EA 10 (race; religion or belief (or lack of belief); sex; age; sexual orientation; disability; or because someone intends to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment it may be unlawful discrimination — see Chapter 2). It is important to recognise different forms of harassment so that they can be tackled appropriately.

General union Unite guidance, Zero tolerance — dignity and equality at work, Dealing with harassment, discrimination and bullying (2014) explains that harassment can take the form of verbal, written, or physical abuse, exclusion, gestures, graffiti, pictures, flags or emblems, and that it may be a one-off or continuous incident.

It sets out that:

• sexual harassment includes unwelcome behaviour which can range from leering looks and verbal abuse of a sexual nature, displaying pin ups and other sexually suggestive pictures, objects or written materials, unwelcome touching and, in extreme cases, assault and even rape;

• racial harassment can range from racial jokes, graffiti, ridiculing or insulting and name calling because of someone’s race or nationality, cartoons or pictures that degrade people of a particular racial or ethnic group, deliberate exclusion from normal workplace conversation or social events and even physical assault;

• harassment of disabled workers can be patronising or offensive comments, inappropriate reference to a person’s disability, unwelcome discussion of the impact of disability, communicating with a disabled person via a third party, pre-judging a disabled person’s capabilities, unwelcome interference with personal aids or equipment, uninvited physical contact, staring, or refusing to work with or excluding people with disabilities from social events or meetings;

• harassment related to age can take the form of ageist ‘jokes’, derogatory remarks, bullying, name calling, assumptions regarding the person’s ability to learn, offensive remarks, overbearing supervision or unjust criticism, inappropriate initiations for new workers, ignoring views and opinions, exclusion or isolation and setting a person up to fail;

• homophobic bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) workers can include offensive “banter”, unwanted sexual references, spreading malicious rumours, verbal abuse, name calling, stereotyping, false allegations of misconduct, actual or threatened unwanted disclosure of sexual orientation, derogatory comments, lack of recognition and excluding same-sex partners from social events, intrusive questioning about a person’s domestic circumstances and threatened or actual physical or sexual assault;

• harassment related to religion or belief is discrimination and can take the form of offensive comments or “jokes”, refusal to work with a person because of their religion or belief or non-religion or belief, excluding a person from social events or meetings, making assumptions about a person’s religion or belief or non-religion or belief, mocking practices associated with particular religions or beliefs, unfair allocation of work and intimidation; and

• harassment related to gender identity is unwanted behaviour against trans people and can happen when a person intends to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment and equally when this is not the case. It can include hostile and intimidating behaviour, demeaning treatment relating to the person’s sex and sexual orientation, exclusion from workplace activities, refusal to share toilet and other workplace facilities, taunts, verbal and physical abuse.