Sexual Harassment At Work

THE SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT

The Sex Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for employers in Great Britain to subject someone to sexual harassment this includes both men and women. It is also unlawful to harass a transsexual person because they intend to undergo, are undergoing, or have undergone gender reassignment. Sexual harassment itself is prohibited by the Sex Discrimination Act but, in many instances, it will be accompanied by other forms of unfavourable treatment such as not being recruited, criticism of work, lack of promotion, enforced transfer and ill health or dismissal.

Sexual harassment could include:

  • Unwelcome comments of a sexual nature
  • Unnecessary touching or unwanted physical contact
  • Leering at someone’s body
  • Displaying offensive material such as posters
  • Sending offensive e-mails. This includes colleagues downloading pornographic e-mails, even if they aren’t sent to you personally

The law protects those against sexual harassment from an employer, colleagues and third parties, for example, customers. Sexual harassment could be a one-off incident or a series of incidents. It could be sexual harassment if you are working in an environment, which the behaviour of others makes intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive.

THE DEFINITION OF HARASSMENT

The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to provide that a person subjects a woman to harassment, including sexual harassment, if:

“(a) on the ground of her sex, he engages in unwanted conduct that has the purpose or effect –

(i) of violating her dignity, or
(ii) of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her,

(b) he engages in any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect—

(i) of violating her dignity, or
(ii) of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her, or

(c) on the ground of her rejection of or submission to unwanted conduct of a kind mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b), he treats her less favourably than he would treat her had she not rejected, or submitted to, the conduct.”

Privacy settings

This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to improve our website and provide more personalized services to you, both on this website and through other media. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our Cookie Policy.

Save and close
error: Content is protected !!