Sexual harassment gagging orders to become illegal
EMPLOYERS face a crackdown on the use of gagging orders that prevent workers reporting sexual harassment allegations to police.
Under government plans to be announced within weeks, the use of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) will be made illegal in cases that could be criminal.
A national database would allow employees to report claims, including assaults and lewd comments, it emerged last night – a year on from the start of the #MeToo movement.
It comes as MPs accused watchdogs of showing a “lack of focus and urgency” in tackling sexual harassment in the workplace.
The police and the healthcare sector should face Government intervention to force them to take sexual harassment seriously, according to the women and equalities committee.
Earlier this year, the committee wrote to 10 regulatory and inspection bodies, including the Bar Standards Board, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, asking them to explain what they were doing to tackle workplace sexual harassment.
Maria Miller MP, the committee’s chairman, said that the “lack of focus and urgency” demonstrated by some of the responses was “very concerning”.
“We know that employers are falling down in their responsibilities to create safe working environments,” she said.
Mrs Miller said the committee was “particularly disappointed” at how few of the bodies understood their responsibility to have “due regard” towards eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace.
Earlier this year the committee concluded a six-month investigation into harassment, during which MPs discovered that British employers were using NDAs to bully victims into silence.
The committee concluded that sexual harassment remained “an everyday occurrence” and part of the culture in many workplaces, and accused employers, regulators and ministers of failing to stamp it out.
Their report, published in July, recommended new laws that would make it an offence for employers to use NDAs to prevent victims of sexual harassment going to the police.