Employment Rights Act 2025 imposes stronger duties on employers to prevent workplace harassment

The Employment Rights Act (ERA) 2025 will impose a stronger duty on employers to prevent harassment at work.

The new duties come into effect on 30 October 2026 requiring employers to take more proactive steps to protect employees from sexual and third-party harassment.

What is sexual harassment?

Section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 sets out the legal definition of harassment and recognises sexual harassment as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating another person’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.

Sexual Harassment Reforms

Section 20 of the ERA 2025 amends section 40A(1) of the Equality Act 2010 to require employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work, raising the standard from the current requirement on employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent this.

Changes made by the ERA 2025 also provide that regulations may be made which shall specify what are to be regarded as the reasonable steps an employer should take or has failed to take.

The steps that may be specified in regulations include carrying out assessments; publishing plans or policies; steps relating to the reporting of sexual harassment; and steps relating to the handling of complaints of sexual harassment. There is no exact date for regulations clarifying the scope of the new duty for employers, but these are currently expected in 2027/28 after consultation, so there will be an extended window without clear legislative guidance.

Third Party Harassment Reform

The ERA 2025 also reintroduces employer liability for third-party harassment across all protected characteristics, not just sexual harassment. Employers should therefore consider risks posed to their workforce by third parties, such as customers, clients, contractors, suppliers, service users and members of the public, when carrying out risk assessments and take all reasonable steps to prevent such harassment.

Failure to comply

Employers who fail to comply with the new duties to protect employees from sexual and third-party harassment will face several consequences.

The main risk centres on the statutory defence to liability for claims. Under section 109(4) of the Equality Act 2010, an employer can avoid liability for sexual harassment committed by its employees only if it can demonstrate that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment. It will now be more difficult to establish this defence as “all reasonable steps” must be shown.

Further, where an employment tribunal finds that an employer has breached the duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, it may uplift the employee’s compensation by up to 25%.

For third-party harassment or discrimination, employers may now face claims for the harassment as employees will be able to bring a standalone claim against their employer where they have been harassed by a third party and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.

Comment

Employers should prepare for this implementation by reviewing anti-harassment/discrimination policies, providing effective staff and management training, strengthening reporting and complaints procedures, and assessing the risks posed by third parties such as customers, clients and contractors.

Taking these proactive steps will help organisations demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, reduce legal risk and promote a safe and respectful working environment.

It is important to note that these changes introduce a much more onerous obligation on employers, and should a situation arise where harassment is alleged, if a tribunal can identify one other step that the organisation could have taken but didn’t, the claim will succeed. It is therefore going to be increasingly difficult to successfully defend such claims and consequently, critical for businesses to consider every option available to ensure your workforce and third-party business contacts are aware of their obligations and understand what is expected of them in a real way.

Tribunals are unlikely to be receptive to tick box exercises if there is evidence the policies are not having practical effect or are not being implemented by those responsible e.g. managers. The extension of the duty also means that the potential for an uplift to any compensation will become available, increasing financial exposure if found liable. The EHRC also has investigative and enforcement powers businesses will be keen to avoid being on the receiving end of.

Preparation is therefore key.

How we can help

To discuss how these changes may affect your organisation or to obtain advice, please get in touch with helen.scott@collingwoodlegal.com. Our specialists are on hand to help you prepare with confidence.

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