Harassment

Many of us may feel we have been treated unfairly at work, but ‘harassment’ is a specific legal term that applies only in certain circumstances.

Broadly, harassment refers to ‘unwanted’ behaviour which results in an ‘intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment’ for the victim, or that ‘violates the worker’s dignity’. That’s the technical definition – basically it means any behaviour that leaves you feeling unhappy, embarrassed or uncomfortable. It is irrelevant if the person harassing you did not know, or intend you to feel that way, it is the way you perceive the treatment that is important.

You cannot, however, bring a ‘stand-alone’ claim of harassment in the employment tribunal, it has to be connected to illegal discrimination on one of the prohibited grounds – eg. sex, race, age, disability, religious belief or sexual orientation. For example, to win a claim of sexual harassment, you will need to show the behaviour was caused by the fact that you were a woman (or a man), or that it was sexual in nature.

Harassment usually occurs over a period of time, and can consist of numerous, sometimes fairly trivial, incidents. Here are some examples of sexual harassment:

  • Making sexist jokes
  • Displaying offensive material, eg. pin-up girls, or downloading pornography
  • Unwanted sexual advances

But harassment doesn’t have to be obvious – it may include more subtle bullying behaviour eg. constantly singling you out for unfair criticism of your work – especially if this is in front of other work colleagues. This might also include copying others into emails that criticise you.

Of course it is hard to show that the more subtle forms of harassment are actually on the grounds of your race or sex etc.. and this is where we at Employment Law Advocates can help. We are employment law specialists and know how best to present your case to the tribunal, we know the sort of evidence that is required and can advise you throughout each stage of your case.

If you are an employer, we can also advise on how to best prevent harassment in the workplace, and help you defend against claims brought against you.

If you want to learn more about what may or may not be harassment, there is a useful ACAS booklet at http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=306&p=0

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