Rojgar Job News

Normally an employer will be liable for one employee’s harassment of another unless it has taken “ all reasonable steps ” in advance to stop conduct of that sort happening, the “statutory defence”. Employment Tribunals can be reluctant to allow an employer to escape liability in that way because that may leave the employee without meaningful recourse (they can sue the individual perpetrator too, but few do), so the bar is high. The question then is, what does “all reasonable steps” mean? Unfortunately, there is very little case law guidance on this (largely because there have been so few cases in which employers have sought to argue the point). It is clearly not a lightweight obligation – the statutory defence does not say “ some reasonable steps ” or “ such steps as might be expected to make any difference ” or “ such steps as do not lay you open to significant employment relations damage or to other claims ...