Sexual Harassment Policy
We are committed to providing an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment for everyone. Sexual harassment can have a devastating effect on your health, confidence, morale and performance and a damaging effect on your colleagues who may be witness to such behaviours. You are entitled to a working environment that respects your personal dignity and is free from such objectionable conduct. In addition, sexual harassment can give rise to civil and criminal liability both on the part of the individual and the company. Every employee has a part to play in upholding this policy.
What is sexual harassment?
To be sexual harassment, the unwanted behaviour must have either:
- violated someone’s dignity, whether it was intended or not.
- created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them, whether it was intended or not.
The behaviour experience must also be unwanted and of a sexual nature.
Some examples of sexual harassment include but are not limited to:
- flirting, gesturing or making sexual remarks about someone’s body, clothing or appearance
- asking questions about someone’s sex life
- telling sexually offensive jokes
- making sexual comments or jokes about someone’s sexual orientation or gender reassignment
- displaying or sharing pornographic or sexual images, or other sexual content
- touching someone against their will, for example hugging them
- sexual assault or rape
How should I deal with unwanted sexual conduct?
We will treat any complaint about sexual harassment very seriously, all the while considering the sensitivity and confidentiality of your complaint.
You should report any examples of sexual harassment to your line manager, a more senior manager, anyone within the business who is specially trained in taking sexual harassment complaints or a trade union representative.
When you raise a complaint about sexual harassment, we will talk to you to find out how we can best resolve matters. To help us in our investigations, it’s important that you give us as much specific detail as possible including times, dates, details of what was said/ done and any witnesses.
Whilst there’s no legal right for you to be accompanied at this point, we are happy to consider your request to have a representative present. We’ll ask you if you would prefer to deal with the situation informally or if you wish to invoke our formal grievance process.
Informal approach
If you would like to deal with the situation informally, we may give you advice and support, encourage you to have a word with the offending person or offer to do this on your behalf, or we may ask you to engage in mediation. Please be aware that if your complaint is considered extremely serious, we have a duty to investigate formally even if you’d prefer it to be handled informally.
We may also offer assistance in the form of counselling through our employee assistance programme (if we have one), support from particular colleagues trained in dealing with sexual harassment, advice from your trade union or an employee representative or refer you to external specialist organisations.
Formal approach
For formal complaints about sexual harassment, we’ll refer to our grievance procedure.
Will I be able to stay away from work after I’ve made a complaint?
In some circumstances it may be necessary for us to separate you from the person you have made a complaint against. This may mean moving one of you to a different shift, location or work area, or suspending one of you from duty. Any action we take in this regard will not be a punishment, it will be a legitimate attempt to protect both parties.
What if I think a criminal offence has occurred?
If you think you have been subjected to conduct amounting to a criminal offence such as a sexual or physical assault, please seek the assistance of your manager. They’ll discuss with you whether to call the police to make a formal complaint and will support you in any way possible. With your permission, your manager will inform us of the circumstances of the case and liaise with us to arrange special discretionary compassionate leave for you if requested.
In most cases we’ll respect your decision if you decide not to inform the police, however if we believe there is an ongoing risk to yours or others safety or an increased risk to your safety because you are a vulnerable person, we may have to inform the police, but we’ll always discuss this with you before doing so. We will not normally wait for the outcome of any police investigation before investigating and deciding if disciplinary action is required.
There are various helplines that can offer advice and support which can be found online. A few examples are below:
- Victim Support – 0800 8168 9111
- Victim Support Scotland – 0800 160 1685
- Rape Crisis England & Wales – 0808 500 222
- 24/7 Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line – 0808 500 2222
What happens next?
We’ll keep you informed of our investigation and any recommended actions we’ll be taking to resolve your complaint. We’ll also keep an eye on things to make sure the unacceptable behaviour or treatment has stopped and that you or others are not treated unfairly as a result of making or supporting a complaint. We’ll also keep a record of our investigation and any outcomes.
What about historical complaints?
Sometimes, a lot of time goes by before someone raises a complaint. We are committed to taking every complaint seriously, regardless of the date it took place. We will do our best to investigate where possible although we may be unable to carry out a full investigation if the person you are accusing no longer works for us, witnesses no longer work for us or evidence would have been destroyed as it was too long ago.
Who can experience sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment can happen to men, women and people of any gender identity or sexual orientation. It can be carried out by anyone of the same sex, a different sex or anyone of any gender identity.
You could experience sexual harassment from anyone you come into contact with due to your job, including:
- a colleague
- a manager, supervisor or someone else in a position of authority
You can also experience sexual harassment from a customer, client or member of the public.
What if I witness sexual harassment?
If you witness a colleague being sexually harassed at work and as long as it is safe to do so, you may want to try and prevent it from happening. If you prefer to report the incident then you do not need the permission of the victim to do so.
You can support the person who has been sexually harassed by reporting what you have seen; providing a statement and attending a hearing as a witness, or alternatively you can make a complaint yourself if what you have witnessed violates your dignity or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you.
What will you do to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace?
As your employer we have a duty of care to you and we will take all of the necessary steps to ensure that you are working in a safe and secure environment and that sexual harassment does not happen in our workplace.
In addition to this:
- We will aim to offer training and education to staff on recognising and understanding sexual harassment as well as their role in developing a culture free from sexual harassment.
- We will assess factors that may increase risk of sexual harassment e.g. lone working and ensure sufficient arrangements are put in place.
- We will create a zero-tolerance culture by handling complaints via the correct procedures, never covering up a complaint and taking action against any perpetrator of sexual harassment. We will foster a working environment that supports the dignity and respect of all and is free from sexual harassment.
- Where sexual harassment does occur, we will provide you with our grievance procedure that ensures we are dealing with it and properly managing the complaint.
- We will ensure that any other policies that run in conjunction with this policy are up to date and regularly reviewed e.g. disciplinary & grievance policies.
