If you’re being harassed

We’ve all got the right to work without feeling intimidated, humiliated, or offended by our colleagues. Even a one-off incident is too much. Emails about your appearance, unwanted touching, and being mocked and belittled is over the line. Your work environment could feel hostile and degrading even if the behaviour hasn’t happened directly to you.

You have protections under the law

Harassment is a type of unlawful discrimination. If you’re being harassed based on a protected characteristic – such as your age, sexuality or race – you’ll first need to raise a grievance and go through Acas early conciliation. If you’re not happy with the outcome, you can make a claim at an employment tribunal. There's a limited amount of time in which you do this – generally three months less one day. And the deadline doesn't change if you first try and get the problem resolved informally, so it's important to act as soon as you can.

How we can help

Our expert solicitors can help you identify whether what you’re experiencing is harassment and whether it’s linked to a protected characteristic. We can explain what you need to do when raising a grievance, and what you can do to strengthen your arguments. If you choose to go to an employment tribunal, we can explain the process, and guide you at every step of the way. We’ll:

• listen to what’s happened
• guide you on what you need to do, and when
• advise you on any potential claims and the time limit for pursuing them