Course overview

Managers Workshop - Understanding sexual harassment in the workplace and the new employer duty.

The statutory duty imposed on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace requires employers to train all staff on what sexual harassment is and how to prevent it as well as how to raise complaints if it does occur. Furthermore, the new duty also requires training for managers on how to manage complaints of sexual harassment.

This 2 hour workshop hosted by an experienced employment lawyer and trainer from Birketts focuses on what the new duty means for managers and how to navigate issues raised by staff. It will cover: 

• Understanding the workplace situations which would meet the current definition of sexual harassment: with focus on some lesser known examples e.g. individual being penalised in terms of work allocation/responsibilities for refusing an advance from a colleague.
• Understanding how the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill revises this duty
• How should employers and managers be preparing for this change: understanding our bullying and harassment policies, encouraging a “speak up” culture, helping the organisation identify harassment risks (we would involve reference to your policies and procedures here)
• Consideration of potential further changes to the law on harassment – further protection from harassment by third parties (clients, customers, agency workers and others) (we can use real life examples here of the scenarios and situations which are of most relevance to your organisation)

A workshop for employees is also available:  

• What is workplace sexual harassment and how can we prevent it?