Sexual harassment at work: employer duties explained

Your employer cannot wait for a complaint before acting. Since 26 October 2024, employers in England, Wales and Scotland have owed an anticipatory legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. From 30 October 2026, that duty becomes stricter.

What legally counts as sexual harassment?

Section 26(2) of the Equality Act 2010 sets a low bar, deliberately. Harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of violating your dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

That covers sexual comments, innuendo dressed up as “banter”, explicit messages, touching, displaying pornographic images, and sexual demands in return for promotion or under threat of dismissal. A single incident can qualify. Repetition is not required.

When a tribunal decides “effect”, it must consider your perception, the other circumstances and whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect. If you found it degrading, that matters.

There are two other forms of harassment in the same section. Harassment “related to sex”, such as sexist abuse that is not itself sexual, falls under section 26(1). Less favourable treatment because you rejected or submitted to sexual conduct falls under section 26(3). The prevention duty and the compensation uplift described below attach to conduct of a sexual nature under section 26(2).

What must your employer do?

Your employer can be liable for its own conduct or a colleague’s harassment. It also has a separate duty to prevent sexual harassment before it happens.

“In the course of employment” extends beyond the office. Case law has included work socials, Christmas parties and client events. With late-night WhatsApp groups used for shift rotas or post-work drinks organised by a manager, tribunals look at the connection to work, not the clock.

What are “reasonable steps” in practice?

The Act does not list them. The Equality and Human Rights Commission technical guidance sets out what employers should do, and employment tribunals treat it as persuasive. Assess the risk, record it, train staff and enforce the policy.

Employers who pass the test tend to have a recent, specific sexual-harassment risk assessment and a published policy with examples and clear consequences. Training is regular and interactive, rather than a tick-box video from 2019. Staff have multiple reporting routes and a named contact besides their line manager. Investigations are prompt and impartial, with time limits, and sanctions are applied. Employers monitor trends, including third-party risks for customer-facing roles. Leaders visibly treat complaints as safety-critical.

A policy nobody has read or training nobody attended will not do the job. Nor will a reporting line that leads only to the harasser’s friend, or a complaint left in an inbox for six weeks. These failures can lead to a compensation uplift.

Ministers will gain power to specify steps that count as “reasonable” by regulation under new section 40B from 30 October 2026 (ERA 2025 s.22). No regulations have been made yet. Until they are, follow the EHRC guidance and document everything.

What if the harasser is a customer, client or patient?

The rules on your employer’s liability change on 30 October 2026.

Until 29 October 2026, there is no standalone claim in Great Britain against your employer for harassment by a third party, such as a customer, client, patient, contractor or member of the public. But the preventative duty already applies. Where third-party sexual harassment was foreseeable, failing to assess and reduce that risk can breach section 40A and attract EHRC action and the uplift. This includes hospitality, retail, care, security and other work where staff face the public.

From 30 October 2026, section 21 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 inserts sections 40(1A)-(1C) into the Equality Act. An employer “must not permit” a third party to harass an employee in the course of employment, and is liable unless it took all reasonable steps to prevent it. There is no “three strikes” rule. One incident can be enough. The provision covers harassment under the whole of section 26, including sexual harassment and harassment related to any protected characteristic.

Is this a health-and-safety issue?

Health and safety is secondary here. The enforceable harassment regime is equality law, through employment tribunals and the EHRC.

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 section 2, employers owe a general duty to protect health, safety and welfare, and the HSE expects stress risk assessments to treat harassment and violence as hazards. That matters for your employer’s risk assessments.

But the HSE has told Parliament it does not investigate individual harassment complaints. It will not take your case. Do not report sexual harassment to the HSE and wait. Report internally, seek advice, and use the routes below.

Who is protected?

Protection follows how you work, not your job title.

Employees and “limb (b)” workers are fully covered. This means anyone engaged under a contract personally to do work, including most zero-hours staff. The preventative duty, the harassment ban, the uplift and the tribunal route all apply. Job applicants are protected against harassment by the prospective employer from day one, with no employment relationship needed. Agency and contract workers are protected against harassment by the hirer under section 41, while the agency remains liable for its own acts. Ex-employees can claim where harassment arises out of and is closely connected to the former employment.

Genuinely self-employed people running their own business for a client sit outside Part 5 of the Equality Act and outside the preventative duty. Unpaid volunteers without a contract are likewise outside the employment provisions. Office-holders, police and armed forces personnel are brought in by deeming provisions.

Whistleblowing protection uses a broader worker definition. Since 6 April 2026, a disclosure that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur is a qualifying protected disclosure under new section 43B(1)(da) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The broad section 43K worker definition expressly includes agency workers.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: what differs?

England, Wales and Scotland share the same statute book here. The Equality Act 2010 and the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes apply across Great Britain. In Scotland, breach-of-contract claims move to the six-month limit on 9 November 2026. Discrimination and harassment claims in Scotland are already on six months from 1 October 2026.

Northern Ireland is a separate regime under the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, articles 6A and 8. There is no section 40A duty and no uplift. Third-party harassment exists but in the old form Great Britain repealed in 2013: the employer is liable only where the employee was harassed by a third party on at least two prior occasions the employer knew about, and it failed to take reasonably practicable steps. Claims go to the Industrial Tribunal or Fair Employment Tribunal, conciliation runs through the Labour Relations Agency, and the time limit remains three months. Start with nidirect guidance if you work in Northern Ireland.

How to complain: the route that protects you

1. Keep a contemporaneous record. Record dates, times, exact words and witnesses. Save screenshots and note how the conduct affected you. Tribunals weigh contemporaneous notes heavily.
2. Use the internal route promptly. Follow the grievance or dignity-at-work policy and complain in writing. Say what happened, when, and what outcome you want, such as an investigation, separate shifts or no contact. Keep copies off work systems.
3. Get advice early. Contact Acas, a union rep, an advice centre or solicitor. Do not wait for the internal outcome before checking time limits. The clock runs from the act complained of, not from the appeal decision.
4. Notify Acas for early conciliation. This is mandatory before most tribunal claims. Notifying Acas pauses the limitation clock. Since 1 December 2025 the conciliation period can run up to 12 weeks.
5. Claim to the employment tribunal if needed. The limit is six months minus one day in Great Britain, but only where the act complained of falls on or after 1 October 2026. Earlier acts keep the three-month limit. Ask also for the section 40A uplift in your schedule of loss.
6. Consider parallel routes. Report systemic failure to the EHRC. If the conduct is also a sexual offence, you can report it to the police. If you work in a regulated firm, consider the FCA whistleblowing channel.

Can you be punished for complaining?

Retaliation is separately unlawful, and the protection starts on day one with no qualifying service.

Victimisation under section 27 covers detriment or dismissal because you did a “protected act”, such as complaining about harassment, bringing a claim or giving evidence. You do not have to be dismissed to suffer detriment. Shift cuts, ostracism and failed promotion all count if linked to the complaint.

Since 6 April 2026, disclosing sexual harassment can also be whistleblowing. Dismissal for that reason is automatically unfair; detriment short of dismissal gives a standalone claim. In regulated financial services, serious bullying and harassment is now also expressly a conduct-rule and fitness-and-propriety matter under FCA non-financial misconduct rules in force from 1 September 2026. That gives you another route if internal HR stalls.

If your employer did nothing after you reported, escalate in writing to a senior manager and raise a formal grievance citing the section 40A duty. You can report the pattern to the EHRC and start Acas early conciliation to protect your time limit. Treat constructive dismissal as a last resort. Resigning is high-risk, so get legal advice first.

Can an NDA stop you speaking out?

A confidentiality clause often restricts less than an employer suggests. Do not assume it stops you getting advice.

From 2027, section 24 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 will void any clause that purports to stop a worker alleging or disclosing harassment or discrimination by the employer or a co-worker. Regulations are still needed to set the exact date and the exceptions, including how settlement agreements will be treated.

Existing limits apply until then. Under section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, in force since October 2024, NDAs cannot block reports of criminal conduct to the police, lawyers or victim support. Settlement agreements need independent legal advice to be valid. Acas and EHRC guidance is clear that confidentiality cannot be used to prevent reporting a crime or making a protected disclosure. A signed NDA does not bar you from getting advice.

How much compensation could you get?

Tribunal remedies for harassment include a declaration, compensation for financial loss plus injury to feelings, and a recommendation. Compensation is uncapped. There is no statutory cap like the one for unfair dismissal.

Injury to feelings follows the Vento bands, updated each April. For claims presented on or after 6 April 2026 in Great Britain, the lower band is £1,300-£12,600 for isolated, one-off acts. The middle band is £12,600-£37,700 for serious cases that do not merit the top band. The upper band is £37,700-£62,900 for the most serious cases, such as lengthy campaigns with psychiatric harm. Exceptional cases can exceed £62,900. Add past and future loss of earnings without limit.

The tribunal can also apply an uplift. Where it finds harassment involving sexual harassment and awards compensation, it must consider whether the preventative duty was breached and may increase the award by up to 25% under section 124A, inserted by the Worker Protection Act 2023.

1. 26 Oct 2024Preventative duty begins

   Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. EHRC gains enforcement powers; 25% uplift available.

2. 6 Apr 2026Whistleblowing extended

   Sexual-harassment disclosures become protected disclosures. New Vento bands apply.

3. 1 Sep 2026FCA rules apply

   Serious harassment is a conduct and fitness matter in regulated firms.

4. 1 Oct 2026Six-month tribunal limit

   Discrimination and harassment claims in Great Britain move from three to six months for acts on or after this date.

5. 30 Oct 2026All reasonable steps and third-party liability

   The duty becomes stricter. Employers become directly liable for third-party harassment unless they took all reasonable steps.

6. 2027NDA ban expected

   Clauses blocking harassment allegations to be void. Date and exceptions await regulations.