What extra steps should employers take when employees deal with third parties? In this week’s NLJ, Vanessa Kelly, principal associate at Eversheds Sutherland, dissects the new legal duty on employers to proactively protect employees from sexual harassment, including from third parties, which took effect in October 2024.
Her article covers how the new duty applies to third parties and how third-party commercial terms can be updated. She provides a useful case study to illustrate the new duty in practice.
Kelly writes that the new duty does ‘not create a standalone claim that employees can bring. Instead, claims for breach of the duty can only be considered by a tribunal where it has upheld an employee’s claim of sexual harassment. Where an employer is found to have breached the preventative duty in such circumstances, the tribunal can increase any compensation award by up to 25%’.RELATED ARTICLES
