Employer's defence tightly construed in harassment cases

Recent industrial tribunal decisions suggest that employers are finding it difficult to show that they took "such steps as were reasonably practicable" to prevent their employee from committing a discriminatory act of sexual or racial harassment.

In the Earlam v (1) VMB Ltd and (2) Andrews¹ case, a Birmingham industrial tribunal (Chair: A C Tickle) found that a machine operator was discriminated against on grounds of sex by the second respondent, a setter, in that: "His behaviour at times was quite obviously sexually offensive to a woman - particularly his dropping of his trousers, his question 'Fancy a fuck?', his grabbing her round the waist" and other incidents.