Harassment

Harassment is generally regarded as a form of discrimination. It is commonly defined as “unwanted conduct that has the purpose or effect of violating people’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.

Any discrimination or harassment of one of your employees by another employee in the course of their employment is treated as having also been carried out by you. This may leave you exposed to a claim for damages or even constructive dismissal if your employee feels they have no option but to leave their job.

However, if you can show you took all reasonably practicable steps to prevent the discrimination or harassment from occurring, the employee responsible will alone be liable.

We can advise you on how to demonstrate that you have taken all the steps that would be regarded as reasonably practicable to eliminate harassment, including drafting employment policies and procedures that make it clear that harassment will not be tolerated and that set out how it will be dealt with if it occurs.

We can also advise on your responsibilities to protect staff from harassment by third parties, such as suppliers or clients.

For more information on how we can help you, please contact us on
01702 339222 or at employer@btmk.co.uk