The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 placed a positive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers.
In force since October 2024, the duty is enforced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and by employment tribunals, which can uplift compensation by up to 25% where an employer has failed to comply. The central question for HR, compliance and legal teams is a practical one: what actually counts as reasonable steps?
Why “reasonable steps” is not a fixed checklist
The Worker Protection Act deliberately does not prescribe a fixed list of actions that automatically discharge the duty. The EHRC’s statutory enforcement guidance makes clear that what is reasonable is calibrated to the employer’s specific circumstances – its size and resources, the nature of its work, the working environments it operates in, and the harassment risks it has identified through its own assessment.
This means a small professional services firm and a large hospitality group will be assessed against different standards. But it also means that every employer – regardless of size – must have made a genuine, documented attempt to identify its risks and take proportionate action in response. The absence of any action is never reasonable.
The six areas the EHRC guidance identifies
The EHRC’s technical guidance on sexual harassment identifies six areas employers should address as part of their reasonable steps approach. Each has direct implications for manager training.
1. Developing an effective anti-harassment policy
A policy that reflects the current legal position – including the positive duty, the ERA 2025 amendment making harassment a qualifying disclosure category, and the prohibition on third-party harassment – is a baseline. But a policy alone is not a reasonable step. Tribunals and the EHRC will look at whether managers know the policy exists, understand what it requires of them, and have been trained to apply it.
2. Engaging staff on the policy
The EHRC guidance specifically references engaging staff – not just issuing the policy – as part of reasonable steps. For managers, this means receiving training that goes beyond reading a document. Interactive, facilitated training that tests understanding and allows managers to work through realistic scenarios is what engagement looks like in practice.
3. Assessing and taking steps to reduce risk
Employers are expected to conduct a harassment risk assessment – identifying where harassment is most likely to occur, which worker groups face the highest risk, and what environmental or structural factors contribute to it. Third-party contact roles, lone working, client-facing positions and environments with significant power imbalances feature consistently in risk assessments. Identifying those risks only discharges the duty if trained managers are in place to act on the findings.
4. Reporting and responding to harassment
Reasonable steps require employers to have a clear, accessible process for reporting harassment – including routes that do not require reporting to a direct line manager, given that the manager may be the subject of the concern. Managers need training on how to receive a report correctly: maintaining confidentiality, taking immediate protective action where necessary, initiating the appropriate process, and avoiding responses that could constitute retaliation or discourage the reporter from pursuing their concern.
5. Training staff and managers
The EHRC guidance identifies training as a core component of reasonable steps – and distinguishes between all-staff awareness training and manager training. Managers are expected to receive training that equips them to act, not merely to be aware. The guidance notes that training should be regular and updated, reflecting legislative changes. Training delivered before the Worker Protection Act came into force, or that does not address ERA 2025’s extension of whistleblowing protections to harassment disclosures, is out of date.
6. Monitoring and evaluating the approach
Reasonable steps are ongoing, not one-off. Employers are expected to monitor whether their approach is working – tracking whether reports are being made and handled correctly, reviewing whether training is being completed and refreshed, and updating risk assessments as working patterns or environments change. An employer that trained its managers in 2023 and has taken no further action is unlikely to satisfy the reasonableness standard in 2026.
What tribunals and the EHRC look for
When assessing whether an employer has taken reasonable steps, tribunals and the EHRC look at three things in particular:
Quality, not just existence
Having a policy and having delivered training are not the same as having taken reasonable steps if the policy is inadequate or the training is superficial. A 15-minute online awareness module that confirms the worker has read the harassment policy is evidentially much weaker than a half-day facilitated course delivered by a subject-matter expert, with documented attendance and a post-training assessment. Tribunals are increasingly familiar with the difference.
Currency
Training that does not reflect the Worker Protection Act’s positive duty, the ERA 2025 whistleblowing amendment, or the EHRC’s enforcement guidance is out of date. An employer whose training content predates October 2024 cannot credibly argue it has taken reasonable steps under a duty that came into force at that date. Content currency is an evidential question, not just a best-practice one.
Documentation
Records of who was trained, on what content, when and whether training has been refreshed are the primary evidence base in a tribunal or EHRC investigation. SCORM-compliant eLearning that integrates with an LMS generates this automatically for digital learning. Facilitated training requires attendance records and, ideally, certificates of completion. CPD-accredited training provides an additional quality marker that carries weight in regulatory and legal proceedings.
Third-party harassment and the reasonable steps standard
The Worker Protection Act positive duty extends to harassment by third parties – clients, customers, contractors, members of the public. This is a significant extension of employer responsibility. Reasonable steps in this context require employers to identify roles and environments where third-party harassment is a risk, implement preventative measures such as clear client conduct expectations, and train managers to recognise and respond to third-party harassment reports in the same way they would respond to internal incidents.
For sectors with significant client or customer-facing exposure – financial services, retail, hospitality, legal and professional services – this dimension of the reasonable steps standard deserves specific attention in manager training content.
The 25% uplift: what it means for the reasonable steps calculation
The compensation uplift of up to 25% applies where a tribunal finds the employer failed to comply with the positive preventative duty. In discrimination cases, where compensation is uncapped, the financial stakes are significant. The EHRC has also indicated it will use its enforcement powers – including conducting investigations, issuing unlawful act notices, and entering into binding agreements – where employers fall short.
The cost of taking reasonable steps – including delivering quality, CPD-certified facilitated training to a cohort of managers – is a fraction of the potential exposure from a contested harassment claim with an uplift applied. The reasonable steps calculation is therefore also a financial risk calculation. HR teams building the business case for manager training have a direct and quantifiable argument to make to the C-suite.
Related resources
Legal Obligations for Manager Training in the UK (hub): https://www.safecall.co.uk/resource/legal-obligations-for-manager-training-in-the-uk/
Worker Protection Act 2023 – Manager Training Guide: https://www.safecall.co.uk/resource/what-counts-as-reasonable-steps-under-the-worker-protection-act-for-employers/
Tackling Sexual Harassment – Manager Training: https://www.safecall.co.uk/service/prevention-of-sexual-harassment-training/
Worker Protection Act 2023 – What Managers Must Know: https://www.safecall.co.uk/resource/what-counts-as-reasonable-steps-under-the-worker-protection-act-for-employers/
Safecall’s Tackling Sexual Harassment training for managers
Safecall’s Tackling Sexual Harassment – A Guide for Managers is a CPD Certified facilitated course designed to equip managers with the knowledge and skills to meet the positive duty under the Worker Protection Act 2023. It addresses the reasonable steps standard directly – covering policy, risk, reporting, response and documentation – and is updated to reflect ERA 2025 and the EHRC’s enforcement guidance. Available online (2.5 hours) or in person (half day), with bespoke tailoring for organisations with specific risk profiles or sector requirements.
Find out more about Safecall’s training courses at safecall.co.uk/service/compliance-training/ or contact the team at [email protected] | +44 (0) 191 516 7720
Sources and further reading
Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023: legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/51
Equality and Human Rights Commission – Technical Guidance on Sexual Harassment and Harassment at Work: equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/sexual-harassment-and-harassment-work-technical-guidance
Equality and Human Rights Commission – Employer guidance: preventing sexual harassment at work: equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/employer-guidance-preventing-sexual-harassment-work
Employment Rights Act 2025: legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025
Equality Act 2010: legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15
ACAS – Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: acas.org.uk/sexual-harassment