Staff harassment law extended

Employers in Britain will be duty-bound from Sunday to protect their staff from sexual harassment by customers, suppliers and others they encounter in the course of their work.

Workers are already protected from harassment by colleagues, but under new rules which come into force on Sunday, they will be able to seek damages from employers who fail to take reasonable steps to protect them from harassment by a third party, if bosses knew that at least two incidents had already taken place.

The government was forced to change the law after the-then Equal Opportunities Commission - now part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission - won a ruling that the government had failed to properly implement the European equal treatment directive, which requires workers to be protected from "any unwanted conduct related to their sex which violates their dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment".