When an employee goes to work they expect to carry out duties as requested or as per their job description and in accordance with their training. It is a human given to be respected as individuals and to be valued as such throughout the working day, to respect each person’s job no matter how highly qualified or how unskilled that person may be. Every employee holds the right to get on with their job without being touched, having to listen to verbal sexual innuendos or being sexually harassed in any way whatsoever.

Thankfully the implementations of ‘Sexual Harassment Policies’ in the workplace are improving matters but there is still a huge gap in many companies and the sexual harassment policy is often entwined within the grievance procedure leaving no set guidelines for would be ‘Harassment perpetrators’ to be warned off.

Bullying is equivalent to rape (it's psychological and emotional rape because of its intrusive and violation nature) and grievance procedures force the victim of this rape to have to relive the trauma repeatedly - this could be a breach of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act: freedom from torture and inhuman and degraded treatment

Human Rights Act

The Human Rights Act 1998 gives legal effect in the UK to the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). These rights not only affect matters of life and death like freedom from torture and killing but also affect your rights in everyday life: what you can say and do, your beliefs, your right to a fair trial and many other similar basic entitlements.

The rights are not absolute – governments have the power to limit or control them in times of severe need or emergency. You also have the responsibility to respect the rights of other people – and not exercise yours in a way which is likely to stop them from being able to exercise theirs. 

Your human rights are:

• the right to life
• freedom from torture and inhuman and degraded treatment
• freedom from slavery and forced labour
• the right to liberty
• the right to a fair trial
• the right not to be punished for something that wasn't a crime when you   did it
• the right to respect for private and family life
• freedom of thought, conscience and religion
• freedom of expression
• freedom of assembly and association
• the right to marry or form a civil partnership and start a family
• the right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights and    freedoms
• the right to own property
• the right to an education
• the right to participate in free elections

If any of these rights and freedoms are abused, individuals have a right to an effective solution in law, even if the abuse was by someone in authority, for example, a policeman.