On 26th October, the new Worker Protection Act comes into effect. This new law changes the way organisations handle sexual harassment in the workplace, requiring them to switch from simply managing complaints, to proactively preventing incidents from happening in the first place.
We’ve created a guide to the new law for organisations, but from the responses we’ve seen to our free webinar on the topic, we thought it was worth busting some of the myths about sexual harassment, and highlighting what this new act means to small businesses.
Myth One: Only Women Experience Sexual Harassment
While women are more than twice as likely to be victims of sexual harassment, a report by the BBC revealed that 79% of men who experienced harassment, did not report it, which means the statistics may not reflect reality.[1]
Your teams need to understand that harassment can take place between all genders, so it is important not to fall into the unconscious bias trap and believe that it can only take place with a male aggressor and a female victim. We need to ensure that our internal education highlights this, along with the understanding that minoritised groups and people with protected characteristics are statistically more vulnerable to harassment.
Myth Two: It Can’t Happen to Remote Workers
Sexual harassment is not just a physical act, and therefore, if your employees only work remotely, your organisation is not ‘immune’ to the new law. A survey by Rights of Women showed that female employees continued facing inappropriate behaviour while working from home during the pandemic. 45% of women surveyed experienced harassment remotely through email, texts, social media, and apps like Teams, Slack and Zoom.
One question that came up in our recent webinar, was whether the act protects those that are working from home but are victims of domestic violence. The short answer is no, as it’s about an organisation’s responsibility for protecting their people at work, not out of work. But does that matter? There are plenty of examples of organisations that have policies in place to help support their people if they need time off to recover, or escape from a domestic problem or any other personal problem. While this is not considered part of a ‘reasonable step’ under the new act, it is worth considering when developing new policies and plans to protect and support your workers.
Myth Three: Incidents Should Be Reported Immediately
Victims may not come forward straight away for any number of reasons and it’s important to respect their timeline and provide support when they are ready to talk about it.
The two most common reasons for incidents not being reported straight away are that the victim didn’t realise that the behaviour was sexual harassment, or that they fear retaliation. The latter is not an unfounded belief, as 75% of workplace harassment victims experienced retaliation when they spoke up.[2] However, these are two key areas where education and culture will make a real impact in reducing incidents.
As Katy said in our recent webinar: “People need to learn how to give and receive feedback properly. It’s a skill. When someone has the confidence to say ‘That comment didn’t land well with me’ or ‘That makes me uncomfortable’, especially if the person who said it did not intend to cause offence or harm, then that is a gift that we’re giving to them. It’s a preventative step and can build psychological safety, enabling great conversations through giving feedback.”
For more help or support on implementing changes in your organisation, get in touch with Connect Three or register your interest for harassment-free workplace membership with the Consent Collective.
[1] https://whattobecome.com/blog/sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace-statistics/
[2] https://gitnux.org/sexual-harassment-in-workplace-statistics/#sources