What counts as workplace sexual harassment?

What is sexual harassment, what can be classed as ‘the workplace’, and what are your rights if you experience it?

This article aims to answer the above questions. Individual working circumstances are guaranteed to vary wildly, but we aim to cover some basic examples.

Examples of sexual harassment

There are many examples and scenarios that could be defined as sexual harassment, but here are some examples as described by ACAS:

• 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.

What is classed as the workplace?

The workplace is not just the office. It could be connected in any way with work, such as a staff Christmas party, awards ceremony, conference, training event… right down to an email exchange or even conversation with a colleague over a messaging app, such as Teams, Messenger or WhatsApp.

What are your rights?

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) states that a grievance van be submitted to your company’s HR department and you have the right for it to be fully investigated, no matter how senior the positions of the parties involved. Some organisations allow this to be done anonymously or via digital means.

What is the company’s responsibility?

Employers must investigate any and all complaints of sexual harassment, even if there har been a large duration of time between the incident and the report.

Codes of conduct should be in place and presented to employees in staff handbooks, establishing acceptable conduct for work events outside of the workplace.

What do I do if I am the one who is accused?

In the event of an accusation, it is crucial to gather evidence to support your innocence, such as chat logs, physical witnesses or a diary of events.

Employers shouldn’t assume that the accusations are either true or false according to ACAS, and the employer should offer them support and sensitivity to ensure that the complaint is handled in a balanced manner.

Personal injury claim

Whilst claims for sexual harassment in the workplace are often advanced as employment claims in the Employment Tribunal, where the impact to the individual’s mental health has been significant, an alternative option of a County Court claim could be considered.

Claims for personal injury have a much longer limitation period (3 years instead of the usual 3 months for Tribunal claims), which is often more helpful to an employee who has been the target of sexual harassment at work, as it allows them time to seek medical advice as a priority and therefore any legal advice which they may wish to obtain.

Please feel free to get in touch with our team if you think we can help with any free and confidential advice.

Further reading

Bullying and harassment – Oakwood Solicitors

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