The Act describes harassment as: ‘unwanted conduct related to a woman’s sex, or that of another person, that has the purpose or effect of violating her dignity, or of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her’. It can take many forms including: physical contact of any sort; suggestive remarks or so called ‘jokes’; sexual propositions; unwanted comments on dress or appearance; verbal abuse of a sexual nature; leering; and displaying pornographic pictures or pin-ups.
The common feature of all this conduct is that it is unwanted by the person on the receiving end. Whether or not the harasser intended to be objectionable is not the point. If the behaviour is unwelcome and the attention is not wanted by the other person, it may well amount to harassment.
Usdaw runs a year-round campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment and the harm it causes, as well as encouraging everyone to take responsibility for calling it out in the workplace. The campaign played a part in securing the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, which came into effect in 2024. This relatively new law requires employers to proactively take steps to prevent sexual harassment from arising in the workplace in the first place.
There is still more to be done to tackle sexual harassment. You can find out more about the campaign here.
For more information about your right to be protected from sexual harassment in the workplace, check out our members and reps guides:
