According to new research from the TUC, more than half (52%) of women, and nearly two-thirds (63%) of women aged 18-24 years old, said they have experienced sexual harassment at work. The research. ‘Still just a bit of banter’, conducted in collaboration with the Everyday Sexism Project and carried out in January 2016, revealed that of the 1,533 women surveyed:

• 32% have been subject to unwelcome jokes of a sexual nature while at work;
• 28% have been the subject of comments of a sexual nature about their body or clothes at work;
• 23% have experienced unwanted touching – like a hand on the knee or lower back at work;
• 20% have experienced unwanted verbal sexual advances at work;
• 12% have experienced unwanted sexual touching or attempts to kiss them at work;
• in 88% of cases the perpetrator of the sexual harassment was male and 17% of women reported that it was their line manager, or someone with direct authority over them; and,
• 79% who said they experienced sexual harassment at work did not report it.

The report sets out a number of recommendations for the Government, employers and trade unions to take to stamp out sexual harassment (see pages 28 to 32).

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