There are two notable changes to employment law relating to the Sex Discrimination Act this month. Both came into effect on 6 April and will have far-reaching implications not just for Human Resources teams, but for everyone. A further, separate proposal involving the Royal Family would have even greater consequences regarding the equality of the sexes.
Sex Discrimination Act
The definition of sexual harassment has been expanded. The new definition includes people who feel that they have been subjected to the unwanted conduct of other people in the workplace. In other words – sexist comments and "banter".
So, this means that even those who are not subjected to the comment or the banter directly can make a complaint. Employers now need to ensure that banter and emails do not get out of control and implement rules and procedures for reporting and handling allegations of harassment.
Employers will be held liable for sexual harassment when they knowingly fail to protect their employees from repeated harassment by third parties, such as customers. To be liable, the employer must know that the employee has been subjected on at least two other occasions by a third party – but not necessarily the same third party.
This will have a particular impact on the leisure impact, and especially the "chatting up the barmaid" culture. Pubs, restaurants and nightclubs will have to pay special attention to this change in the Act, and will need to make a visible effort to protect their staff.
Eleanor Williams from Cardiff law firm Darwin Gray, told the website icwales.com that: "customer-facing staff are in a particularly sensitive position. Employers should put up notices on their business premises clearly stating they will not tolerate sexual harassment of staff. But they will need to follow this through and make a genuine effort to protect their staff.
"The whole leisure industry needs to think carefully about its response but there are many other scenarios where it could have a profound impact. For example, staff in open-plan offices cannot stop other people overhearing their private conversations. They need to be given firm guidance by their employers."
Additional Maternity Leave
There is no longer a distinction between ordinary and additional maternity leave for entitlement to non-pay benefits. This now applies to women who give birth on or after 5 October 2008.
This now means that a pregnant employee will receive the same contractual benefits during additional maternity leave (i.e. the second 26 weeks) as in ordinary maternity leave (i.e. the first 26 weeks). These contractual benefits include annual leave, pensions and company cars.
This modification comes at a time when employers are apparently increasingly taking into account candidates’ chances of falling pregnant before employing them.
A survey found that more than two-thirds of recruitment professionals would like more rights to ask candidates about their plans for a family. 86% of them would feel cheated if a candidate started and then announced within weeks that they were pregnant.
However, this kind of questioning is banned under the Sex Discrimination Act, and an employee is not legally obliged to give notification until 6 months into the pregnancy. However, once the employer has been informed, the employee is entitled to certain rights:

• protection against less favourable treatment


• protection against being subjected to detriment or dismissed for a reason connected to her pregnancy


• the right to paid time-off for antenatal care and protection against being treated less favourably for taking time off for antenatal care


• the right to health and safety protection