We are committed to a working environment free from sexual harassment and where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. The Council will not tolerate sexual harassment.

The Worker Protection (Amendment to Equality Act) Act enhances protections against sexual harassment and sets specific responsibilities for the Council.

It shifts the focus from redress to prevention, putting the onus on the Council to take proactive steps. Taking proactive steps to prevent incidents of harassment and bullying arising will also help build a more inclusive and positive workplace culture.

If an employee discloses or reports sexual harassment, you should always respond in a respectful, non-judgemental, and sensitive way. Some people may make a disclosure without wanting to make a formal complaint. People should be encouraged to make a formal complaint but if they feel uncomfortable doing so, then this can still be recorded on the EVOTIX Assure health & safety system on an anonymous basis. Human Resources can advise on the appropriate approach as required.

All reports of sexual harassment must be dealt with in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and treated sensitively and confidentially.

With a view to preventing sexual harassment by third parties, we need to ensure that the risk of sexual harassment occurring during Falkirk Council work activities is appropriately risk assessed.

This is a critical aspect to support our staff and demonstrates that we have taken reasonable measures.

In order to do this, any Activity Risk Assessment on the EVOTIX Assure health and safety system must include the risk of sexual harassment. This can be done by managers and relevant employees who have a license to login to the EVOTIX system. When doing it, you should:

1. Add the Unacceptable Action Hazard Category and select the Sexual Harassment Hazard Phrases within the Hazards and Controls section of the assessment.
2. Populate "How is Person at Risk" with the following statement: 
• Employee could be at risk of psychological or physical harm due to instances of sexual harassment whilst working.

3. Consider and add control measures.  Appropriate control measures to prevent sexual harassment are available within the Control Measure tab and the following control measures are always required to be implemented:
• All employees to undertake equality and diversity training
• Remove posters/derogatory items eg cups
4. Share the risk assessment with the affected employee.

Employees can report incidents of sexual harassment, including by third parties, that they witnessed or become aware of, on the Employee Portal of the EVOTIX Assure system, speak to their line manager, another manager, trade union representative, or contact the hrhelpdesk@falkirk.gov.uk.

Incident reports submitted via the EVOTIX Employee Portal contain a field for reporting whether an incident was prejudiced based and, if so, what characteristic was involved. Where an incident report is received and it indicates that a protected characteristic is involved, this will be sent by the HR Helpdesk. If it does appear to be prejudiced based, then it will be forwarded on to relevant HR Business Partner to liaise with manager to ensure that appropriate action is being taken. The line manager/investigating officer should:

1. Confirm with the affected employee that this is correct and if so, taking advice from the HR Business Partner, determine the most appropriate way forward. Refer to How to deal with a formal Dignity at Work complaint (guide for managers)
2. If the incident was reported incorrectly as being prejudice based, the line manager/investigating officer, after confirming with the employee reporting the incident, should change the dropdown menu to 'No' and use the Note function in the Supporting Items of the incident report to record that this has been changed after confirming that the incident was incorrectly reported by the employee. When recording this change in the Note, the line manager/investigating officer should cut and paste the following statement into the comment section:
• "This incident was incorrectly reported as being Prejudice based and has been updated following consultation with the affected employee".

Line managers must ensure that all reports of sexual harassment are recorder on EVOTIX Assure health & safety system. This is important to ensure that we can tackle concerns about potential sexual harassment within the organisation.

Actions to address sexual harassment alleged by staff could include disciplinary investigation, training or counselling on appropriate behaviour. If the harassment is by a third party, the risk assessments may be reviewed as set out in the How to prevent and manage occupational violence and unacceptable actions guidance to ensure that appropriate measures are in place. This may include withdrawing a service, terminating a procured contract or banning the third party from the premises if the behaviour is not moderated.

Some forms of harassment, including sexual assault and other physical threats and hate crimes, are a criminal matter and you should support employees to report this kind of incident to the Police.

Where a complaint is reported to the police, or criminal court proceedings are being pursued, where appropriate, it must still be investigated by the Council as an employment matter and may be referred to be dealt with under our Disciplinary Policy. HR can provide guidance on the appropriate approach.