In the world of HR and employment law the big story for the last few weeks has been the introduction of a new statutory duty under The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 (the new Act) which came into force on 26 October 2024. This introduces a new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees in the course of their employment.
Protection from sexual harassment has been around for decades and was last updated when the Equality Act 2010 was implemented however the new Act now imposes a mandatory legal duty on employers to proactively prevent sexual harassment of employees while they are at work by taking reasonable preventative actions.
Allegations of a breach of this new duty can only be considered by a tribunal where an employee’s claim for sexual harassment has been upheld, therefore it gives more teeth to a well-founded claim, and a higher burden on an employer to show that it did everything they could to prevent the behaviour.
When an employee wins a sexual harassment claim at an employment tribunal and the employer is found to have neglected their duty to take reasonable preventative steps, the tribunal may increase the compensation awarded by up to 25%, which is significant, given there is no cap on such awards. These types of claims can put employers out of business, and I have seen it happen.
So that’s a big deal for employers, however in terms of protecting people from harassment, I have recently experienced a complete failure on the part of the police to deal with harassment I experienced. Which leads me to wonder, are we safer at work?
I was walking my dog at lunchtime, in daylight. It took a while to comprehend; but I was being followed. A few experimental changes of direction, stops and starts confirmed to me that I was being followed. I don’t actually know when it started, however, from the time I realised I was in trouble until the police arrived, nearly 45 minutes had elapsed.
During that time, I walked quickly, changed direction, crossed roads; questioned my sanity, everything you would do to assure oneself that one wasn’t imagining the situation. Once you have done all that it becomes an escalating fear. Every time I saw a member of the public, they went indoors, or hopped in their vehicle and drove off before I could reach them. All the time this guy was at my heel trying to talk to me. Ignoring me asking that he leave me alone. My dog loves people, I didn’t know if she would protect me, but if she did, am I at fault? So I just walked quickly, trying to find someone to help.
The man was walking less than two feet behind me, hands stuffed in his pockets. Did he have knife, a rope? I didn’t want to find out.
Eventually I reached a local shop where I walked up to a worker and said ‘I’m being followed’. He immediately told the guy to leave. Despite this, the perpetrator just carried on hanging around, staring at me and the guy from the shop, totally nonplussed, even though I had also called the police by this time. He did not care. The guy in the shop stayed with me the whole time. But he was afraid too. It was all so weird.
When they arrived, the police had to determine if a crime had been committed before engaging with the perpetrator, who was nonchalantly waiting for the police to go so he could follow me home.
The only times in my life that I have called the police have been when I felt in personal danger when my house got burgled, with me in it, and when I was stalked. On both occasions the perpetrators were convicted. Police data should show that I only ever contact the police if I am genuinely in fear, and a crime has been committed, however I was ‘pre-qualified’ to determine if I was a victim of a crime before they dispatched a patrol car. This guy was frightening me to the extent that I was afraid to go home.
He pretended to be mute, then gave the police two false names so they detained him and said they would be in touch. After eight hours I called for an update and was told they had let him out; he had ‘a mental health issue’, no further action. No statement would be taken from me.
According to the police, following someone is not a crime. It should be. Every attack or murder of a lone female on the streets starts with the victim being followed.
Given the new duty on employers, isn’t it time the police’s statutory duty to deal with harassment is reviewed and updated to ensure they deal with harassment in a manner that reflects the victim’s experience, rather than the perpetrator’s purported mental health issue? Surely any mental health issue is a sentencing matter, and not a reason to let a dangerous man out on the streets…
