Managing a sexual harassment complaint 

Since early December, the start of the Christmas party season, we have been called upon to support employers who have had to deal with the fallout from the works festive celebrations. Most incidents were triggered by alcohol, and all involved an element of harassment. In the heat of the moment, it’s not always easy to get the full picture, and you may not even be aware that there’s been an incident until the next working day. 

The most common incidents at an event outside of the immediate workplace include sexual comments or jokes, suggestive looks (staring or leering), propositions, intrusive questions about a person’s private or sex life or a person discussing their own sex life and last but certainly not least, unwelcome touching or hugging. 

The next working day sees the arrival of a complaint of sexual harassment, but what should you do?

The works do is an extension of the workplace and the chances are that if you are the business owner, director, manager or person responsible for HR, then the complainant has raised their concerns with you as they need your help. They may have been the victim of or witnessed sexual harassment and may feel uncomfortable about addressing the issue by themselves.   

Step 1 – ask the complainant how they would like you to deal with their complaint. They may just need some support to speak to the alleged harasser, another person in their corner to help them nip this in the bud. In these circumstances, help your employee to explain to the alleged harasser that they found their behaviour offensive and unwelcome and would like it to stop. Hopefully the alleged harasser will apologise and give assurances not to repeat the harassment and that will be the end of it. 

Step 2 – consider whether mediation is required, this is often a useful process to “fix” relationship issues in the workplace, following a dispute at work (or work-related event.)

But what if the incident is more serious, or the alleged harasser refuses to apologise?

Step 1 – encourage the complainant to raise a formal grievance. Ask them to include as much detail as possible:

• Name of alleged harasser.
• Nature of incident/harassment. 
• Date, time, location. 
• Names of any witnesses.
• If applicable, any action taken by the complainant to try and stop it.
• If the alleged harasser is not part of your workforce, and their name is not known to you, then the name of the Company they work for is a good starting point.

Step 2 – follow your own grievance procedure to investigate the complaint and if the complaint is upheld, follow your company disciplinary procedure to take appropriate action against the alleged harasser. If the alleged harasser is not part of your own workforce, then notify their employer and provide them with any evidence you have, to corroborate the complaint. 

Whist a complaint is being investigated, consider whether it is appropriate to separate the complainant and alleged harasser at work. Maybe one of them could work from home, or if the complaint is sufficiently serious, the alleged harasser may need to be suspended. At no point, should the complainant be made to feel as though they are “moaning” “being too sensitive” or “causing trouble” for having made their complaint.  

Prevention is better than cure, and since October 2024, there is now a legal obligation on employers to take proactive steps to protect ALL workers (including employees, casual workers and agency temps) from sexual harassment in the workplace (including work related events off site such as works parties, training events or meetings.) 

If you are interested in providing training (face to face or e-Learning) for your workforce, then please contact us.

Evidence that you have provided training will reduce your vicarious liability in the event that a sexual harassment claim is made to an Employment Tribunal by one of your employees.