Commission to investigate four big employers over sex abuse

FOUR major employers face a landmark legal action over the sexual harassment of staff, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said.

Organisations in the legal and education sectors could be subject to an official investigation after staff complaints.

The announcement comes after the commission’s report this year that found “corrosive” working cultures had silenced victims and normalised harassment. The identity of the employers is not yet known but The Daily Telegraph understands they are highprofile within their sectors.

The EHRC has launched only one other investigation in the past few years, reporting on unlawful harassment, discrimination and victimisation of black, female and gay police officers in the Metropolitan Police. Enforcement action could end in a court case and fine if employers fail to comply with commission recommendations.

One of the current cases came to light after a woman handed the commission a dossier, while three other cases were raised by solicitors who notified the EHRC of the sexual harassment of victims they were representing.

Elizabeth Prochaska, the commission’s legal director, said: “It’s hard for us to get our hands on evidence. Victims of harassment are not coming to us in significant numbers.”

Speaking to MPS on the Women and Equalities committee yesterday, she argued that women should not have to “endure a protracted legal process in order to get access to justice in order to remedy a terrible situation at work”.

She said policymakers needed to lift the “crushing burden” of whistle-blowing off individual women.

The revelation follows the “Me Too” movement, which prompted women and men to speak up about sexual harassment. Sue Coe, a colleague on the commission, added that employers had been unprepared for “Me Too”, which had caught them “flat-footed”.