This employee is raising an allegation of sexual harassment. Where an employee has been harassed at work, a company is unlikely to be able to avoid liability if a claim is brought unless it can show that it had, as a minimum:
- made clear to all its employees, including directors, what types of conduct would be viewed as harassment;
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- made clear to employees its policy that harassment will not be tolerated in the workplace, and
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- implemented that policy in practice.
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In addition, it must provide employees with some accessible means of raising complaints of harassment. Where the employee raises a grievance in writing the statutory grievance procedure will apply. This provides a minimum standard for dealing with grievances.
It is also important for good employee relations to ensure that the company's position on harassment is clear and that complaints of harassment are dealt with quickly, fairly, consistently and with sensitivity. Compensation awarded for employment tribunal claims involving harassment can be high.
A specimen dignity at work policy is provided in the Specimen documents section of this site [ Dignity at Work ]. This provides mechanisms both for informal and formal resolution of harassment complaints. In some cases, an employee may simply wish the unacceptable behaviour to stop and the informal procedure without recourse to the disciplinary procedure may be appropriate. If however, the employee wishes to raise a formal complaint, the company should not seek to dissuade her. Where a director is involved, a fellow director or the managing director is likely to have to conduct any disciplinary proceedings.