Development of a Sexual Harassment Policy
Overview
All employees have the right to expect to be treated with dignity and respect at work by colleagues, managers, and any third-party individuals. We are committed to providing an inclusive, supportive, and safe environment for everyone who works here. Over the coming months, we will be developing a Sexual Harassment Policy to be used in conjunction with our other conduct related policies.
Give us your views
We are at the very early stages of developing the policy and want to hear your views on what the policy should focus on to ensure it meets the needs of all colleagues. Your feedback will be treated completely confidential.
We are also engaging with the Colleague Networks, Trade Union Representatives, Trauma Informed Leads, Health and Safety, Senior Leaders, Elected Members and relevant external organisations. We will use all feedback received to help shape the policy, supporting training, toolkits and wider Our Behaviours culture.
If you need any more information about the development of the policy, please email olivia.reed@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Support available
We understand that the subject of sexual harassment might be upsetting or triggering for some colleagues. If you feel affected by any of this, please consider speaking to your manager or another colleague if you feel comfortable to do so. You can also find other support on the Employee Wellbeing orb pages including our Employee Assistant Programme and signposting to external support.
Reporting an incident
Please note that this platform is not for reporting incidents of sexual harassment. If you or someone else wants to report an incident of sexual harassment please view the protecting colleagues from unacceptable behaviours orb pages and report to your line manager in the first instance. If you don’t feel you can report the incident to your manager (if your complaint relates to them for example), you can report it to another senior manager or contact askHR on 0131 469 5555.
If you or someone else needs urgent police assistance as a result of sexual harassment, please dial 999 immediately. If you want to report a sexual harassment related crime and it is not an emergency, you can visit Police Scotland website or call Police Scotland on 101. When you're reporting a crime, you can ask to speak to a specialist officer who's trained to deal with sexual violence.
What happens next
All the feedback we receive as part of this engagement will be used to inform and shape our new Policy. Following consultation with our Trade Unions and approval by Elected Members, we hope to launch the Policy within the next 12 months.
Areas
- All Edinburgh
Audiences
- Employees
Interests
- Policies, plans and strategies