Cheshire charity urges businesses to protect employees from sexual harassment

Businesses across Staffordshire and Cheshire are being urged to 'up their game' and make sure workplaces are zero-tolerant towards sexual harassment.

It's ahead of a new law, known as The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, which introduces a new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees.

It will also impose tougher penalties on companies if they're found to have failed in doing so.

A number of charities and unions have reported that sexual harassment is still shockingly prevalent in many workplaces, even in 2024.

Saskia Lightburn-Ritchie is the Chief Executive of MyCWA (Cheshire without Abuse) based in Crewe. She told Hits Radio News: "People might share something light hearted like a joke or a meme, and some of those are sometimes not appropriate. They need to be shut down immediately so that there's no blurring of boundaries and everybody in the business knows what to expect.

"The key thing is to make people understand this is not acceptable behaviour. It's also about what you put in place for people who've got any concerns, and they feel it's approachable. That engagement is critical.

"The big thing for me is that you can have a conversation about it. So that if someone says something that is a little off, the people around feel confident to challenge and tackle it. And it's important that you feel comfortable in the workplace, and that you're confident that if you raise that as an issue it'll be taken very seriously."

"Policies should feed and inform the culture"

The new rules will give employment tribunals the power to increase compensation payouts in sexual harassment by up to 25 percent if the employer is found to have breached the new duty. They could also face enforcement action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Saskia continued: "We see a lot of issues with domestic and sexual abuse in workplaces, that employers don't know how to handle. Especially if the person causing the harm and the person that's the victim work for the same employers. These are some complex difficult circumstances that people don't always know how to manage."

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