EHRC Sexual harassment and harassment at work: technical guidance updated - they want feedback

[IwantToRetire]

This doesn't seem to be a formal consultation, but there is a survey format to give feedback, for anyone who is interested.

What this guidance covers

This guidance covers sexual harassment, harassment and victimisation in employment under the work provisions in the Equality Act 2010 (‘the Act’). The work provisions are based on the principle that workers should not be harassed, discriminated or victimised at work (Part 5 of the Act).

This guidance also covers an employer’s positive legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of its workers (the ‘preventative duty’).

This guidance will:

• help employers to understand their legal responsibilities in relation to harassment and victimisation, the steps they should take to prevent harassment and victimisation at work and what they should do if harassment or victimisation occurs
• help employers to understand their positive legal obligations in relation to the preventative duty, the steps they must take to prevent sexual harassment at work and what they should do if harassment occurs
• help workers to understand the law and what their employer should do to prevent harassment and victimisation, or to respond to their complaint of harassment or victimisation
• help lawyers and other advisers to advise workers and employers about these issues
• give employment tribunals and courts clear guidance on the law on harassment and victimisation, the legal scope of the preventative duty and best practice on the steps that employers could take to prevent and deal with harassment and victimisation
• use examples to illustrate some of the practical steps employers of different sizes and types can take to eliminate harassment in the workplace

Read the whole guidance at https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/sexual-harassment-and-harassment-work-technical-guidance which has link to feedback process.

Will be interesting to discuss in this the sexual harassment of being required to remove clothes and do intimate acts in the company of selected male people (with a range of agendas) often at the cost of punishment and further harassment for unwillingness to provide your body as a resource for the use and increased happiness of said male people.

Yes. I think there are a number of complexities linked to conflicting rights.

In addition to the GRC one, others such as people with severe learning disabilities and dementia engaging in non consensual sexual activity with carers/ workers. Some staff adopt the 'they have no capacity to understand and are just acting in line with biological drives, so it isn't assault' whilst others are impacted by their experience being that of being assaulted.

I am bringing the above into the discussion as it provides a parallel for those who wish to view TWAW and those who don't and how they are likely to feel about being work-based intimate care/activity.

Feedback form is very limited in terms of number of characters.

Unfortunately the guidance doesn't give any examples of this or constant false allegations of transphobia

4.11 There are certain factors that may increase the risk of sexual harassment. .....

• workers that have more than one protected characteristic, for example, disabled people, ethnic minorities and people from the LGBT community are more likely to experience sexual harassment than people who do not have these protected characteristics

This document lists examples of "workers that have more than one protected characteristic" which "increase the risk of sexual harassment" (above) and it doesn't mention women. They list being from an ethnic minority which is not a protected characteristic as such, the protected characteristic is race. Sex is another protected characteristic and the list should include women, who are at increased risk of sexual harassment.

I only skim read this late last night and felt if was a bit of a last ditch attempt to make up for maybe not reviewing earlier.

4 years may seem to short a time to review a guidance, but given how many court cases, newspaper stories there have been about inappropriate sexual behaviour in a range of work places, I would have thought they would have been a bit more on the mark.

There are nurses suing their NHS trust right now for exactly that reason.

@HermioneWeasley there's 2 cases right now, the group in Darlington and the nurse in fife who was sacked for objecting to male nurses in her changing facilities

As Faye wants to be anonymous I dont know if Protect Single-Sex Facilities at Work by Faye Russell-Caldicott is one of those cases - but there may be 3.

The fig leaf has got to be pulled away and it has to be clear that requiring a woman to undress in front of a man to soothe his inner sense of self is sexually harassing her. The man's intentions are irrelevant really: he requires that she provides him with access to her body, whether that's to comfort his sense of identity by her peeing in the cubicle next to him or changing her clothes or whether he is actively sexually excited by her doing so, including her submission to his position of power over her.

There are women willing to consent to this, and that's fine. They can go in third spaces and provide their bodies to be used, their body their choice. But it is abhorrent that women are being required to enable men with their bodies as the price of their access to women's spaces. It IS sexual even if the man has passed a Vulcan mind meld and is absolutely innocent of direct sexual intent: he still requires her to remove clothes and perform intimate acts near him for his benefit without care for her consent or experience.