Recent press articles suggest the bar is incredibly low for what constitutes harassment or discrimination at work. Take the recent case where an organisation lost a tribunal for sexual harassment supposedly because the boss didn’t say good morning to a female colleague when he did to male staff.
Whereas such headlines are worrying for employers, there are always further details that explain the real reasons why the tribunal was lost. Thankfully the bar for losing a claim, whilst low, is significantly higher than that and, with training, employers can protect themselves.
But the boring detail doesn’t sell newspapers I suppose!
At tribunal, employment judges often come down hard and are very intolerant of Claimants who say they were discriminated against for trivial reasons or who seem to be trying it on simply because they have a ‘protected characteristic’ such as race, sex, or sexual orientation.
But the bad news is that tribunals never seem to reject such cases prior to a tribunal for discrimination even where the evidence is incredibly flimsy. This leads to typical costs of over £10,000 for the employer even if they win, plus days and days of painstaking preparation and legal discussion when you’d rather be talking to customers.
Often, cases that seem to fit the criteria of unfair dismissal are brought as discrimination claims by those with a protected characteristic because the Claimant has less than the required 2 years’ service to bring an unfair dismissal claim. My slightly cynical view is that they say they were treated in that way because of their race, sex etc largely beacuse you don’t need to have worked for the organisation for a set period before you can make a claim for discrimination.
Unfortunately, proving that the reason for dismissal was not connected to race, sex etc. is incredibly hard for employers so they sometimes lose cases they expect to win, especially after the recent change in the law regarding requirements for employers (see our recent article re this important change). The only realistic way for employers to protect themselves against such claims is to train their employees.
Our e-learning ‘banter and behaviour in the workplace’ course is a proven way of giving employees the knowledge they need to ensure they don’t harass, bully, or discriminate against their colleagues.
Developed in conjunction with e-aspire, a specialist provider of e-learning, the course is 40 minutes long and gives employees all they need to be aware of where the bar is regarding what they can and cannot say at work, with the content being explained via real life examples of actions that would and would not be classed as discrimination.
See the link below for more details or to watch the 2 minute demo regarding the swimming pool example we discussed in our recent blog.
Banter & Behaviour in the Workplace
This new e-learning course describes the various forms of harassment and discrimination in an easy-to-understand format so organisations can appreciate where the bar is at work between acceptable behaviour and that which is likely to lead to a grievance or successful Tribunal claim.
There is an end of course quiz whereby all who pass receive a certificate. This can prove to be very good evidence at tribunal that, as a responsible employer, you have trained your team to avoid harassing or discriminating against colleagues. It may just tip the balance in your favour!
If you have any queries about the course, sexual harassment or discrimination in general please don’t hesitate to contact us. Discounts are available for bulk purchases e.g. if you wish to train the whole team or management team.