header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: The proactive duty to protect employees from sexual harassment

17 January 2025
Issue: 8100 / Categories: Legal News , Employment , Harassment
printer mail-detail
203861
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%’. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll