1. Sexual Harassment Law – updates
Employers will have an obligation to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace – they were always encouraged to be proactive with any reports, but the changes coming into effect on 10th October 2024 mean more responsibility will fall on employers and that sexual harassment in the workplace can no longer be ignored.

• Preventing sexual harassment
  Sexual harassment is defined but the Equality Act 2010 as any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature the has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity and/or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. The major shift in this policy is that failure to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace is very likely going to end in tribunal. This applies to any sexual harassment displayed or carried out by employees, contractors, visitors and other third parties (including customers).
• Employer’s responsibilities
  Employers will have to conduct risk assessment to identify any risk in their business and determine whether steps can be taken to reduce the risk of sexual harassment with roles. Employers must also ensure transparency of reporting procedures as to how reports of sexual harassment will be managed. Furthermore, employers must educate employees on what is not acceptable, and if it’s necessary, management and/or employees need training to ensure everyone know the expectations.
• What you need to do
  • Ensure you have an updated sexual harassment policy. Share the policy with everyone in
  the business and highlight expectations between colleagues/ management etc, so there is
  no doubt about how to treat each other. At We Do HR we can tailor the policy to your
  business, so you remain compliant and legal whilst collaborating with the way your
  business works.
  • Consider the language and conversations that may or do take place in your business
  between colleagues and customers and look to improve the culture around communication
  if you find challenges. Workplace culture influences how employees feel, and ‘banter’
  between colleagues can be misconstrued and more offensive than intended – at the end
  of the day, it’s not about how it was said or done, but about how the behaviour was
  received. If your employees need training, we can help.
  • Train managers in how to deal with reports of sexual harassment and the procedures they
  should follow. We can provide training for managers – just get in touch

2. Tips Policy – reminder
As of 1st October 2024, if you collect tips, service charges or gratuities as part of your business, you must have an updated policy that ensure the fair and 100% distribution of tips to your staff.

• Transparency & record-keeping
  Businesses must have a policy in place that stipulated how tips are collected and distributed, and this must be accessible to employees when they ask to view it. If you use electronic documents, we advise password-protecting them; if you use a hardcopy book, we advise keeping it in a safe or locked drawer when not in use. You must maintain all records of tips received and how they were distributed for 3 years from the date of receiving them. If you use a TRONC system to manage these, this must be advised in your policy, and training given to the relevant staff.
• Cash versus card
  Regardless of whether tips are received via cash or card payments, they must all be accounted for, recorded and shared out between the staff who worked the day the tips were received. If you only take cash tips, you need to consider who is paying the tax on the tips: the employer (if it’s run through payroll) or the employee (who will have to file a self-assessment). If the employer does not pay the tax on tips, then you should have an agreement signed by your employees whereby they accept they are responsible for filing a self-assessment for any tips they receive; without this, the employer is still liable to pay the tax. If you need documentation and policies for this, we can help.
• Agency workers
  If you take on agency workers, then you need to ensure they are included in tips allocation – depending on who they are paid directly by (you or the agency) depending on who they receive the tips from. Agency workers must be included in receiving tips as, if not, this could be found by a tribunal to be failing to comply with the requirements of the legislation, i.e. unfair treatment towards agency workers. If you have further questions, give us a call.
• What happens if you don’t?
  Both failure to distribute tips and failure to provide the relevant information about how your business distributes tips can lead to claims in the Employment tribunal. Speak to us if you need support with this.

3. Expanding the WEDO team!
The HR team is growing! We hope you will join us in welcoming Kayleigh and Laura who you will
get to know over the coming weeks. As always, any one of the team is happy to help so please do
get in touch.

WEDO offer both outsourced and in-house HR as well as Health & Safety consultancy and would be happy to help you incorporate these changes into your business.If you are a retainer client of ours already then policy updates will be issued prior to or as soon as changes come into effect.

Call 01325 488425 or email admin@wedohr.co.uk for more information.