Employment Edit: 3 October 2024

Preventing sexual harassment

Ahead of the new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work coming into force on 26 October, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published an updated version of its technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment at work. It has also published a new employer 8-step guide on preventing sexual harassment at work.

Some key additions to the technical guidance include:

•  Confirmation that an employer is unlikely to be able to comply with the new duty unless it carries out a risk assessment.
• Additional factors that may be relevant when determining whether a step is reasonable, including the sector that the employer operates in, any regulatory standards and whether any steps taken have been effective.
• New illustrative examples (one for a large construction company and one for a hospital) to help explain what steps may be reasonable.
•  A new provision noting that employers should take steps to prevent all types of harassment, notwithstanding the fact that the preventative duty only applies to sexual harassment.
• Some factors that may increase the risk of sexual harassment, including a male-dominated workforce, a workplace culture that permits crude or sexist ‘banter’, gendered power imbalances and workplaces that permit alcohol consumption.
• Employers should be preparing now for the new duty. As it is a proactive duty, as an employer, you need to anticipate scenarios when your workers may be subject to sexual harassment and take pre-emptive action to prevent harassment from taking place. To help you comply, Huw Cooke, discusses five key things you need to know about the new duty in this short video.

Unfair dismissal and probationary periods

Ahead of the release of the Employment Rights Bill, it has been reported that, as part of the shift to make unfair dismissal a ‘day one’ right, employers will be permitted to use probationary periods of up to 6 months for new staff. In its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ (MWP) published during the election, the Labour Party indicated that its planned changes would not prevent fair dismissals during ‘probationary periods with fair and transparent rules and processes’. In addition, both MWP and the briefing notes which accompanied the King’s Speech confirmed that employers will be able to ‘operate probationary periods to assess new hires’.

How this probationary period exception will operate in practice and what process an employer will need to follow when dismissing during probationary periods remains to be seen. More information is expected in the bill next week. Whilst we wait for further details, you can read more about the government’s proposals for employment law reform as set out in MWP in our article below.

Growth and skills levy

Last week, the government announced a new growth and skills levy which will replace the current apprenticeship levy. In its press release, the government revealed some of the details of its planned apprenticeship reforms, including:

•  The new levy will focus on foundation apprenticeships providing routes into critical sectors.
• The levy will allow funding for shorter apprenticeships, to give learners and employers greater flexibility.
• Businesses will be asked to fund more level 7 apprenticeships (those equivalent to a master’s degree) outside of the new levy.

The full scope of these reforms and the new levy will be set out by the Department for Education in due course.