From 6th April 2008, employers can now be held
responsible if their staff suffer sexual harassment from customers
or any other third party with whom they come into contact while
at work, when the employer had a prior knowledge of this occurring
previously.
Staff are already protected from sexual harassment from colleagues.
They are now eligible to claim compensation for their employer
if he or she has failed to take reasonable action to protect
the employee from harassment after being aware of harassment
occurring on two other occasions.
Sexual harassment is classified by the Equality and Human Rights
commission as “any unwanted conduct related to their sex
which violates their dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile,
degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”
Employers are expected to find these new rules challenging,
as they are much better equipped to control the discriminatory
behaviour of a member of their staff than a member of the public.
However, they need to be aware that failure to act could lead
to claims made against them under the Sex Discrimination Act.
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