Dan Peyton, a UK employment lawyer and managing partner of McGuireWoods London, is quoted about the perils of failing to address workplace sexual harassment in a story by HR magazine, a leading journal of the human resources profession.
The Dec. 8 article noted that the problem of women who face harassment at work is pervasive and not confined to the famous or politically influential who dominate current headlines. It cited a 2016 Trades Union Congress survey in which 52 percent of all women respondents and 63 percent of young women reported workplace harassment and 79 percent of those women chose not to inform their employers.
Peyton said that in the past, the problem has not been accorded the sustained attention it demands.
“We are accustomed to periodic scandals regarding aspects of harassment at work. The topic is then placed at the forefront of people’s minds for a period and, among others, HR professionals are called upon to put in place the mechanisms to prevent this sort of unacceptable behaviour,” he said. “The fuss then dies down and we await the next round of scandal, and ask why more has not been done to prevent further such scandals.”