Working near someone who harassed you does not always mean your employer broke the law
“Employer not liable: had taken reasonably practicable steps to prevent harassment”
Reporting harassmentUnwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, such as your sex, race, disability, age or religion, that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment... should trigger a real response from your employer, not just a promise.
- Keep a record covering three things: exactly what you reported, the date you reported it, and whatever action your employer actually took afterwards, if any.
- Ask whether your employer has an actual anti-harassment or equal opportunities policy, and whether it was ever communicated to staff, not just written down.
- If you are still working near the person you complained about and nothing seems to have changed, get advice before assuming there is nothing you can do.
The situation
A male colleague's harassment of two women at a local council went on for months before they finally reported it. Once they raised the complaint, their employer suspended the colleague and launched an investigation. The investigation could not establish what had actually happened. Afterwards, all three employees returned to work in the same area.
What the tribunal found
The tribunal accepted that the harassment had happened as the women described, but found no further harassment took place once management became involved. Even so, the claim against the employer failed. Section 41(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 gave the council a way out: show it had taken all reasonably practicable steps to stop harassment happening, and liability could be avoided. Here, the council had supervised staff properly and had made its equal opportunities policy known, and that was enough. The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision, distinguishing between the employer's own treatment of the women (which could be discriminatory) and the ongoing situation that followed from an inconclusive investigation, which was not itself a fresh act of discrimination.
Sex discrimination and harassment | Employment Appeal Tribunal | 1987