You are protected from sexual harassment in the workplace by the Equality Act 2010.
It does not matter how long you have worked for your employer or whether you are a permanent employee, an apprentice or trainee, on a fixed-term contract or supplied by an agency, you are still protected by this legislation.
This booklet resource describes sexual harassment, its impact and the rights you have to fight back if it happens.
Download Protection from sexual harassment for LGBT workers (PDF)
Often the person carrying out the harassment will try to say that they were just joking or flirting and they didn’t intend to cause offence. But this is irrelevant if it has had that effect on you. The conduct doesn’t have to be specifically targeted at you either. For example, you may work in an office where people display pornography or make sexual comments which you regularly see or overhear about LGBT people, or other groups for example women. This may create a degrading, intimidating or hostile working environment for you even though no one has made comments about you directly or behaved in a sexual way towards you. It is also harassment to treat someone less favourably because they have rejected or been subjected to unwanted sexual conduct.
Here are some examples of behaviour that could constitute sexual harassment:
Sexual harassment could happen in a range of different places:
The harasser could be your boss, a potential employer, a colleague, another manager, a client, a patient, or a customer. For example, a care worker might be harassed by a client when on a home visit. Or a prospective employer might demand sexual favours of an actor at a casting.
A TUC report revealed the substantial impact sexual harassment had on LGBT people with one in five (20 per cent) saying it made them feel less confident at work, while around one in six LGBT people (16 per cent) said the impact was so severe that it caused them to leave their job. Around one in six people (16 per cent) said the harassment had a negative effect on their mental health including making them feel more stressed, anxious, depressed.
Sometimes the person accused of harassment retaliates by further harassing or bullying the person who has lodged a complaint. Or in some instances an employer might treat a victim of sexual harassment unfairly because they are perceived as being ‘difficult’ or causing problems in a team. This is called victimisation.Your employer is not allowed to victimise you for complaining about sex discrimination or sexual harassment at work. If you are victimised for complaining, or for helping a colleague to make a complaint, you can make a claim for unlawful victimisation to an employment tribunal. If you have a union rep, you should let them know that this is happening at the earliest opportunity.
So, if you feel safe and confident enough to do so, you should in the first instance tell the harasser to stop. You may want to have a friend or your trade union representative with you when you do this, or to have called your union helpline beforehand. You may find it easier to ask the harasser to stop in writing.
A union in your workplace can help you to enforce your rights, providing support for you to handle the issue informally or to bring a formal complaint which might eventually lead to an employment tribunal claim.
If there is no union in your workplace, you may want to seek advice from Citizens Advice (see the contacts section at the end of this booklet). Assuming it is not your line manager who is harassing you, you should also tell your manager what is happening. Putting it in writing and keeping a copy is a good way of ensuring that you have a record of events.
If it is your manager who is harassing you, you should speak to another manager, someone higher in the organisation, or to the human resources (HR) department if your employer has one.
It is a good idea to keep a record of the time, date, location and witnesses of any incidents and to keep copies of any emails, texts, online material or social media posts related to the harassment. It might be worth talking to colleagues to find out if any of them have witnessed or suffered similar treatment too.
You should also record the steps that you take to address the problem and the responses you receive from the person harassing you and from your employer. This material will prove useful if you are involved in a formal grievance or wish to go to an employment tribunal.
You can also bring a claim against the individual who was responsible for the harassment.
Your employer must notify you of what action they have decided to take in response to your grievance in writing and without unreasonable delay and they must give you a right to appeal. Larger employers may have their own procedure for dealing with grievances. Provided that your employer’s procedure complies with the Acas code, you should follow your employer’s procedure.
Details of grievance procedures can usually be found in the company handbook, HR or personnel manual, on your HR intranet site or in your contract of employment.
Unions often reach agreements with employers on how workplace complaints should be handled so, if you are a union member, ask your union rep for a copy of the agreed procedure.
More information on raising a grievance can be found in the TUC’s Understanding Grievances and
Disciplinaries publication on the TUC website.
If you or your employer do not want to take part in early conciliation or if you are unable to reach a settlement via that process then Acas will give you a certificate that you will need when issuing your employment tribunal claim.
You must submit a tribunal claim within three months of the incident that you are complaining about (or the last incident if there has been a series of them). This time limit will be paused if you attempt early conciliation.
Acas
Acas National
Euston Tower
286 Euston Road
London NW1 3JJ
acas.org.uk
0300 123 1100
Citizens Advice
Myddleton House
115–123 Pentonville Road
London N1 9LZ
citizensadvice.org.uk
08451 264 264
Equality Advisory
and Support Service
Freepost EASS
equalityadvisoryservice.com
0808 800 0082
Sexual assault contacts
Galop, the LGBT+
anti-violence charity
Galop is a national charity that
provides support to LGBT+ people
who have experienced hate crime,
sexual violence or domestic abuse.
galop.org.uk
020 7704 2040
National Stalking Helpline
Provides support and guidance
to people who feel harassed or
intimidated by the behaviour of
another person.
stalkinghelpline.org
0808 802 0300
Rape Crisis
Rape Crisis England & Wales
is a national charity and the
umbrella body for our network
of independent member Rape
Crisis organisations.
rapecrisis.org.uk
0808 802 9999
The rights described in this booklet – and many others such as the minimum wage – have been won by union campaigning. Without union help and assistance many workers don’t get the full benefit of their rights. Unions also help negotiate better pay and conditions than the legal minima, including far better provisions to support parents with their caring responsibilities. Every day unions help thousands of people at work and every year they win hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation for their members through legal action. To find out more about trade unions and which is the best for you, visit tuc.org.uk/joinaunion
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