Employers now need “all reasonable steps” on harassment as the second wave of Employment Rights Act changes lands

Employers now have to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work, up from “reasonable steps”, after the second wave of Employment Rights Act 2025 changes came into force on 30 October. The same date brought a new duty to prevent harassment of workers by third parties, such as customers, clients and contractors, and a new route for trade unions to request access to workplaces with 21 or more workers.

They follow changes on 1 October that doubled the time employees have to bring most tribunal claims, from three months to six, and extended right to work checks to people on worker contracts and individual sub-contractors. Civil penalties for illegal working can reach £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach, including further down a subcontracting chain.

Gill McAteer, director of employment law at HR and employment law services provider Citation, said: “Reasonable steps and all reasonable steps sound similar, but they’re judged very differently by a tribunal.”

“All reasonable steps means being able to show you have done every step that is reasonable for your size and sector, not just the ones you happened to already have in place.”

On the longer claim window, she said “the risks of sloppy record-keeping or a badly handled dismissal just went up drastically, because the window for something to come back on you is twice as long.”

Citation’s practical checks for employers include:

• mapping every worker, subcontractor and supply chain arrangement, and confirming which now fall inside the right to work regime
• revisiting a 2024 sexual harassment risk assessment against the higher “all reasonable steps” bar
• extending anti-harassment policies and training to cover customers, clients, contractors and visitors, with a clear way to report incidents
• having a process ready for a union access request where there are 21 or more workers
• recording grievances and disciplinaries at the time, because a decision made in October could be challenged next April

The government has said regulations setting out evidence-based prevention steps will not arrive until 2027/28, so until then each employer makes its own judgement on what “all reasonable steps” means for its size and sector. The government guidance on workplace and third-party harassment and Citation’s Employment Rights Act hub set out the detail, and our earlier piece covers what comes next.