Worker Protection: new legal responsibility to prevent sexual harassment

This act represents a significant shift in responsibility, placing a proactive obligation on employers to safeguard all of their workers against sexual harassment, with legal repercussions for non-compliance. 

To support staff in fulfilling this duty, we are asking all staff to review and promote UCL’s updated Prevention of Bullying, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy which has been updated to align with this new duty.

The revised policy includes a definition of sexual harassment, a new section on sexual harassment, strengthened procedures for reporting sexual harassment, guidance for staff and students on expected conduct, and explicit protections against sexual harassment by third parties (including visitors, students, and contractors).

Please take the time to familiarise yourself with the policy and ask that your teams do the same.

If an employer does not comply with the preventative duty, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has the power to take enforcement action, and an employment tribunal can award an increase in compensation.

We urge all staff and students to read the revised policy to ensure that everyone understands the conduct expected of them, and what to do if they are sexually harassed or witness sexual harassment.

In addition to the revised policy, we will be working with leaders across UCL to ensure that a risk assessment is undertaken to identify and manage the risks of sexual harassment of staff; and to implement further steps to reduce those risks. We expect additional steps will include training staff and students on preventing and dealing with sexual harassment, and ensuring third parties (including visitors, students and contractors) are aware of our policy.

Lorren Rea
Head of HR Employment Policy
employmentpolicy@ucl.ac.uk