Harassment Policy

At Aridhia we’re committed to keeping you free from harassment

This page explains the harassment policy we have in place at Aridhia. This policy covers everyone who interacts with the company in any way.

We may change this policy from time to time, so please check this page occasionally to ensure you’re away of any changes.

Overview

It is expected that employees will remain professional at all times. We will treat all colleagues, customers, and third parties with appropriate respect and consideration. Any employee whose behaviour is of an offensive nature, or who is repeatedly ill mannered and disrespectful, will be dealt with via the disciplinary process.

Harassment is unwanted behaviour usually related to certain ‘protected characteristics’, sexual harassment, and less favourable treatment as a result of harassment, which has the purpose or effect of violating a worker’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for that worker. The law protects the following people against harassment at work:

  • Employees
  • Contractors and self-employed people hired to personally do the work
  • Job applicants

Unwanted behaviour can include:

  • A serious one-off incident
  • Repeated behaviour
  • Spoken or written words, imagery, graffiti, gestures, mimicry, jokes, pranks, physical behaviour that affects the person

To be harassment, the unwanted behaviour must have either violated the person’s dignity, or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for the person. It can be harassment if the behaviour has one of these effects even if it was not intended, or if it was intended to have one of these effects even if it did not. Harassment is unlawful and will not be tolerated.

By law, whether someone’s behaviour counts as harassment depends on:

  • The circumstances of the situation
  • How the person receiving the unwanted behaviour views it
  • If the person receiving the behaviour is ‘reasonable’ to view it as they do

This policy will be monitored for effectiveness and reviewed regularly, around once per year, and the updated policy will be shared across all relevant channels.

Types of Sexual Harassment

Sexual Harassment

Anyone can experience sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating a worker’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for that worker. It can be sexual harassment if the behaviour has one of these effects even if it was not intended, or if it was intended to have of these effects even if it did not. This behaviour is still considered sexual harassment if it takes place outside of work including on social media.

What some people might consider as joking or banter can still be sexual harassment.

Examples include:

  • Making comments of a sexual nature about a colleague
  • Telling sexually offensive jokes
  • Displaying or sharing pornographic or sexual images, or other sexual content
  • Touching someone against their will, for example hugging them
  • Making sexual advances or comments at a company event, such as a Christmas party
  • Someone discussing their own sex life

Harassment related to a protected characteristic

This type of harassment is unwanted behaviour related to any of the following protected characteristics:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender reassignment
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

The law on harassment related to a protected characteristic applies when someone:

  • Has a relevant protected characteristic
  • Is harassed because they are thought to have a certain protected characteristic when they do not
  • Is harassed because they have a connection with someone with a certain protected characteristic
  • Witnesses harassment, if what they have seen has violated their dignity or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive working environment for them

For example, this could be the following scenario: an employee has never told people at work that they are gay. One evening the employee is out with their partner and meets their supervisor.

The supervisor tells the rest of the team that the employee is gay. Other people in the team start avoiding the employee and ignoring what they say in daily team meetings. The employee finds this humiliating and very uncomfortable. This behaviour is likely to be harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Less favourable treatment for rejecting or submitting to sexual harassment

This type of harassment is when someone experiences less favourable treatment because of how they responded to previous harassment

It can apply whether the person rejected or ‘submitted to’ the previous harassment.

This harassment happens when the person is treated less favourably than they would have been if they had not responded to the previous harassment in the way they did.

For example, this could be the following scenario: An employee receives sexual advances from a manager but rejects them. Shortly thereafter the employee receives a poor performance score at the yearly performance review. The employee is regularly praised by others for their hard work. This could count as harassment if the employee’s poor performance score is because they rejected the manager’s advances.

Victimisation

Victimisation is when someone is treated less favourably as a result of being involved with a discrimination or harassment complaint. Victimisation or retaliation against a complainant will not be tolerated.

Ways someone could be victimised include:

  • Being labelled a troublemaker
  • Being left out
  • Not being allowed to work on a task

Bullying

There is no legal definition of bullying, it can however be described as unwanted behaviour from a person or group that is either:

  • offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting
  • an abuse or misuse of power that undermines, humiliates, or causes physical or emotional harm to someone

Bullying might:

  • Be a regular pattern of behaviour or a one-off incident
  • Happen face-to-face, on social media, in emails, or calls
  • Happen at work or in other work-related situations
  • Not always be obvious or noticed by others

It is possible someone might not know their behaviour is bullying. It can still be bullying even if they do not realise it or do not intend to bully someone.

Examples of bullying include:

  • Constantly criticising someone’s work
  • Spreading malicious rumours about someone
  • Constantly putting someone down in meetings
  • Deliberately giving someone a heavier workload than everyone else
  • Excluding someone from team social events
  • Putting humiliating, offensive, or threatening comments or photos on social media

Bullying can also happen from staff towards someone more senior, for example a manager. It can come from one employee or a group of employees.

Examples of upward bullying can include:

  • Showing continued disrespect
  • Refusing to complete tasks
  • Spreading rumours
  • Constantly undermining someone’s authority
  • Doing things to make someone seem unskilled or unable to do their job properly

When bullying might be harassment

Bullying and harassment are often confused. By law, bullying behaviour can be harassment if it relates to any of the protected characteristics.

Bullying that is not classed as harassment could still lead to other legal issues. For example, severe bullying might contribute towards constructive dismissal.

Reporting Harassment

If you think you are being bullied or harassed, you may be able to sort out matters informally. The person may not know that his or her behaviour is unwelcome or upsetting. You may feel able to approach the person yourself, or with the help of someone else at the Company. You should tell the person what behaviour you find offensive and unwelcome and say that you would like it to stop immediately.

If an informal approach does not resolve matters, or you think the situation is too serious to be dealt with informally, you can make a formal complaint by using the Company’s grievance procedure. In the case of grievances about bullying or harassment, the normal grievance procedure is modified so that you can choose whether to raise your grievance with your manager or with another manager.

All complaints will be investigated promptly (initially a response will be given within a period not exceeding 7 days) and, if appropriate, disciplinary proceedings will be brought against the alleged harasser. You will have the right to be accompanied by a work colleague representative of your choice at any meeting dealing with your grievance. You will be kept informed of the general progress of the process of investigation and the outcome of any disciplinary proceedings. The proceedings will be handled in confidentiality. All witnesses who might be spoken to as part of the investigation will be told that the matter is confidential and that a breach of confidentiality is a disciplinary offence.

If the harassment is of a serious nature, or you do not feel comfortable approaching the harasser on your own, you can talk to someone to get advice and support before deciding whether to make a sexual harassment complaint. This could be:

  • Someone you trust at work, for example someone you work with, a harassment guardian, or a manager
  • The HR representative can also provide guidance, both unofficial advice if you do not wish to take the complaint any further, or official advice if you do decide to progress with the complaint
  • Specialist advice, for example by contacting the ACAS helpline (0300 123 1100)

If you do not feel comfortable using any of the above channels for reporting harassment, you can report it via an anonymous form found here.

The HR department will be notified of any new submissions to this form. Please note that it will be difficult for the Company to pursue any action towards any alleged event recorded in this form due to the anonymity given. This is unless you decide to share your experiences through the above channels. Regardless, any complaints that are made through the anonymous reporting system will be taken seriously and treated with the utmost respect.

Historic complaints will be treated seriously and investigated.

You have a right not to be victimised for making a complaint in good faith, even if the complaint is not upheld. However, intentionally or maliciously making a complaint that you know to be untrue may lead to disciplinary action being taken against you.

Harassment Outcomes and Consequences

Harassment may lead to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal if it is committed:

  • In any work situation
  • During any situation related to work, such as a social event with colleagues
  • Against a colleague or other person connected with the company outside of a work situation, including on social media
  • Against anyone outside of a work situation where the incident is relevant to their suitability to carry out the role.

Aggravating factors, such as an abuse of power over a more junior colleague, will be taken into account in deciding what disciplinary action to take.

Some incidents can be solved by:

  • Having a conversation between the affected parties
  • Arranging a meeting with everyone involved as well as HR
  • A line manager or HR talking to the person or people in private to say their conduct was inappropriate
  • Mediation

If the harassment is serious and requires a disciplinary process, some outcomes could be:

  • Recorded warnings (oral and written)
  • Suspension or demotion
  • Dismissal
  • Criminal proceedings

For more details on the disciplinary procedure at Aridhia, please refer to the ‘Disciplinary Policy & Procedure’ section in the Aridhia Company Handbook.

In some cases, the harassment is of such a serious nature that the police will be involved. This will normally be at the discretion of the victim; however, the Company reserves the right to report incidents to the police if we believe there is an ongoing risk to the person’s safety or the safety of others. In such cases the Company will discuss this with the person who has made the complaint before and after reporting this to the police.

Third Party Harassment

The sexual harassment of staff will not be tolerated, whether caused by those that work here or third parties including customers, suppliers, or clients. Any instance of work-related sexual harassment should be reported in line with this policy, regardless of who the alleged perpetrator is.

Third party harassment can result in legal liability and will be treated similarly as harassment between colleagues.

This could result in:

  • Warning a customer about their behaviour
  • Removing the alleged perpetrator from a project
  • Termination of contract
  • Reporting criminal acts to the police

We encourage employees to report all experiences of harassment perpetrated by third parties.

To prevent the occurrence of third part harassment Aridhia will closely monitor behaviour from third parties and take any allegations made against a third party seriously.