On 26 October 2024, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 brought into force a legal duty on employers to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment. The 2023 Act provides for several things including increased compensation in Employment Tribunal claims. In this article, we focus on pursuing a personal injury claim against your employer for injury caused by harassment, which can include sexual harassment, in the workplace.
What is harassment in the workplace?
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 makes it a criminal offence for any person to pursue a course of action which they should have appreciated amounted to harassment. Harassment has been defined as unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment to that individual. Harassment occurs where it would be clear to a reasonable person that the conduct would amount to harassment of another. It is a course of conduct which must involve conduct on at least two or more occasions.
Can my employer be liable for harassment in the workplace?
In certain circumstances, an employer may be held responsible for the actions of their employees which amount to harassment, including sexual harassment. Employers have a duty to provide a safe place and system of work. This includes providing a workplace that is free from harassment. Employers should have policies and procedures in place to prevent bullying and harassment in the workplace.
It may be possible to claim compensation against your employer if the harassment was committed by an employee in the course of their employment. This is known as “vicarious liability”.
Your employer may also be found liable for the harassment if it can be shown that there were systemic failures in the workplace. For example, if your employer did not have robust and effective anti-bullying/harassment procedures or policies or failed to enforce such policies.
Your employer may also be found liable for harassment in the workplace if it can be shown that they failed to respond appropriately to a complaint of harassment. In other words, they failed to act when behaviour amounting to harassment was brought to their attention. Such a failure can be said to amount to preventing a reasonably foreseeable outcome from the behaviour amounting to harassment.
How much are harassment at work claims worth?
The value of a personal injury claim for harassment in the workplace will depend on the injuries sustained. Factors which may have a bearing on the value of the claim include
- The nature of the harassment experienced.
- The length of time an individual was a victim of behaviour amounting to harassment.
- The nature and extent of the physical or psychological injuries sustained.
To value a claim, expert medical report(s) will be instructed to comment upon the symptoms and the extent and severity of these. The expert(s) would make conclusions about the prognosis for the recovery of your symptoms. The expert(s) may also consider that treatment would be required to aid with the recovery of your symptoms, the costs of which can be included within the claim.
Is it worth pursuing a claim for harassment in the workplace?
If you have sustained either physical or psychological injuries sustained because of harassment in the workplace, it is certainly worth pursuing a claim.
If you think you may have a claim for injuries sustained as a result of harassment in the workplace, please contact us to discuss the matter on 0800 988 8082 or complete our online enquiry form and a member of our team will get back to you right away.
