Harassment at work

Three routes are covered in Great Britain

The Equality Act 2010 defines three forms of harassment at work: unwanted conduct related to certain protected characteristics; unwanted conduct of a sexual nature; and less favourable treatment because someone rejected or submitted to sexual harassment or harassment related to sex or gender reassignment.

For the first form, the conduct must have the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The Acas harassment guidance explains the characteristics covered and why bullying and harassment are not always legally interchangeable terms.

Context and impact both matter

Harassment can be spoken, written, physical or online. It may concern a perceived characteristic, association with another person or conduct someone witnesses. A person does not have to ask for it to stop before it can be unlawful.

One awkward comment is not automatically harassment, and behaviour described as a joke is not automatically harmless. Consider what happened, its effect, the surrounding circumstances and whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect. Do not ask the person who raised it to investigate their own complaint.

The prevention duty changes on 30 October 2026

Employers in Great Britain currently have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees. From 30 October 2026, this is due to become a duty to take all reasonable steps. Employer liability for third-party harassment will arise only where a third party harasses an employee in the course of employment and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it. The official implementation guidance confirms these are future Great Britain changes and do not apply in Northern Ireland.

Assess risk before a complaint. Review lone work, customer contact, travel and informal messaging. Offer two reporting routes, train managers and record preventive steps.