In an article published in Compliance & Risk Journal, Kim Sartin, Lauren French and Melissa Chan discuss the new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers in the course of their employment that came into force on 26 October 2024.

With effect from 1 January 2024, the government amended the Equality Act 2010 (EqA) to include associative indirect discrimination claims, with the stated aim of replicating and preserving existing EU case law. The EAT has confirmed that such claims were possible in relation to events occurring prior to 1 January too, under then-applicable principles of EU law. This means that where an employer applies a provision, criterion, or practice (PCP) which puts people with a particular protected characteristic at a disadvantage, and where the claimant also suffers that same disadvantage, the claimant does not need to have the same protected characteristic as the disadvantaged group. (BA v Rollett and Ors, EAT).

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that an employee was precluded from bringing disability discrimination claims against his employer as they had been validly waived under a prior settlement agreement. The decision confirms the Court of Session’s decision in Bathgate v. Technip Singapore PTE Ltd that unknown future claims can be validly waived under a settlement agreement although the drafting will need to be absolutely clear in this respect.