Protecting women from sexual harassment in work is not good enough - here's why....

One women airline worker is physically assaulted by a male colleague.

She reports it but nothing is done and she still has to work with him, despite the fact she is scared of seeing him.

A health worker raises sexual harassment with her manager, but is asked what kind of clothing she was wearing when it happens.

Then, when she takes it higher up to the director, she is advised to wear a ring on her engagement finger as a deterrent.

These comments are just three out of hundreds I've read from women workers, who are being failed by their employers when it comes to workplace harassment.

For the past six months, I have been working on a landmark piece of research at Unite the union, polling our women members - almost 300,000 of them - across the 19 sectors we have representation on whether they have been sexually harassed in the workplace by a manager, colleague or a third party such as a patient, passenger or customer.

The results have made for stark reading - the problem is endemic.

A quarter have been sexually assaulted, while almost one in 10 (8 per cent) have been a victim of sexual coercion - when a person pressures, tricks, threatens, or manipulates someone into engaging in sexual activity without genuine consent - at work.

The survey, part of Unite's ongoing Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment campaign, also found 55 per cent had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks, over four in 10 (43 per cent) had been inappropriately touched and over a quarter (28 per cent) had been shared or shown pornographic images.

Very concerningly, for the majority of women who have experienced sexual harassment at work this was not a one-off instance.

Almost half (48 per cent) had it happen more than twice, while over a third (36 per cent) had been harassed more than once.

The situation has led to a culture of fear.

A massive 75% of respondents to our survey did not report incidents.

This leaves perpetrators free to offend again and able to continue working in their job roles, having workplace protection while women who have been harassed suffer in silence.

Meanwhile, women who go on to report it are all too often disbelieved, told they are being too sensitive or that it is part of the job.

Many have had to carry on working with abusers, who haven't received an appropriate punishment for their actions.

Some of the men in question were later promoted.

We also received comments from women saying they had bullied out of jobs or even sacked after reporting incidents.

How can it be fair that a woman loses her job in this way, through a traumatising situation that happened to her through no fault of her own?

This is all happening despite the fact that last October the Worker Protection Act 2023 became law.

This piece of legislation means employers must take measures to prevent sexual harassment from happening in the workplace and at work events such as conferences.

However our survey found just 26 per cent of respondents felt their employer had done enough to promote a sexual harassment zero-tolerance culture within the workplace since this law came in - the comments we received back this up.

This is unacceptable.

No woman should go to work and have to deal with sexual harassment.

But when it does happen they should feel empowered to report it, knowing that the perpetrator will be appropriately punished for their actions and that they will no longer have to work with them.

What can be done about this situation?

There needs to be an urgent cultural shift and we believe education is key.

There should be mandatory training on sexual harassment for all employees.

Some women who responded to our survey said they didn't realise comments or behaviour they had been on the receiving end of was actually sexual harassment until they read the questions in our poll.

The quicker sexual harassment is recognised and dealt with, the quicker it will be stamped out.

Every workplace should have elected equality reps, who are given time off to support women members and help them report harassment.

We are also calling for the introduction of a standalone sexual harassment policy and asking the government to put in extra legal protection.

Third party harassment and sexual harassment should be treated by the Health and Safety Executive as a workplace injury due to the impact it has on women.

Finally, the deadline for being able to make a claim in an employment tribunal should be extended.

At the moment, women have just three months to report incidents.

We are asking for this to be extended from three months after the incident occurred to six months as a minimum for lodging a claim, so they feel emboldened to do even if the harassment was historic.

The Worker Protection Act has not gone far enough in keeping women safe from sexual harassment at their workplace and employers are not taking their obligations seriously despite the fact it is the law.

Employers and the government must take our demands seriously to ensure that women have the dignity and respect they deserve at work.

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Alison Spencer-Scragg is Unite national women’s officer

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