Discrimination risk - Significant new harassment laws, and risks with positive action

Overview

Proposed new harassment laws will mean employers are far more exposed to harassment claims than currently. So it’s crucial to understand the legal risks and how best to protect your organisation and build a positive workplace culture.

But with ever-increasing pressure to improve culture and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), you need to be alive to how stereotypes and unlawful positive discrimination may undermine your drive to achieve this.

Our webinar will look at:

• What employers need to know about the potential new duties on employers to protect workers from harassment
• Positive action v positive discrimination
• Stereotyping risks

Are you ready for the new duties to protect workers from harassment?

We will take you through what the new harassment laws would mean for employers and what steps you should be taking now to tackle harassment and build a positive workplace culture.

Positive action v positive discrimination

Now that we are five years on from the first year of gender pay gap reporting, employers are feeling the pressure to show that their EDI strategies are working and their gender pay gap and other diversity statistics have started to improve. The risk for employers is that in seeking to improve their pay gaps, lawful positive action could cross the line into unlawful positive discrimination. This brings the risk of discrimination claims being brought by those who are for example white/ heterosexual/ non-disabled/ male. We will take you through how to avoid these claims arising and lawful steps you can take to improve EDI.

Stereotyping risks

We will also look at how unconscious stereotyping risks discrimination claims and how you can take action to deal with stereotyping issues, both to improve your workplace culture and to remove barriers to improving EDI. 

Agenda

In this 60-minute webinar we will:

• Explain the implications of the Worker Protection Bill and the anticipated statutory code on sexual harassment and harassment
• Outline the steps that employers can take to prepare for the changes to harassment law
• Give examples of common stereotypes and assumptions in the employment lifecycle
• Explain how you can take action to deal with stereotyping issues
• Summarise what unlawful positive discrimination looks like
• Outline the lawful steps you can take to improve EDI

This session is aimed at HR professionals, in-house employment lawyers and learning and development professionals.