The Sex Discrimination Act and How you can live through Sexual Harassment in the Workplace is an unpleasant subject to say the least.

Can you imagine what it would be like if you had to worry every morning when you got up and think "Who is going to be making nasty comments about me today? Who is going to make sexual inuendos about my sex life telling me how they are going to teach me a thing or two." Even more of a concern "Is someone going to try and grab my bum or try and cuddle me?" You don't have to suffer this type of treatment as Sexual Harassment in the Workplace is actually illegal. Unfortunately there are some sad people who think it is funny to harass new colleagues at work but for those who are suffering this treatment it is just awful.

There are two areas to this. There is the Sex Discrimination Act which states that as an employer or employee you are not allowed to discriminate against anyone due to their gender. Next is Sexual Harassment which means that you are forbidden to harass another colleague with humiliating or vulgar comments or touching them inappropirately.

The suffering that an individual has to deal with when faced on a daily basis with this stressful situation, can be very destructive to their physical wellbeing and mental wellbeing. The circumstances for the employer is to have high turnover of employees, higher than the average sickness rates and weak output.

If you are experiencing Sexual Harassment then go and talk to your line manager and discuss your situation. They should go and talk to the individual who is harassing you and if they are mature, they hopefully will realise that they have overstepped the mark and stop their actions. In some cases you may get an apology but unfortunately in some cases the individuals will carry on and even increase their bad behaviour.

If this happens to you then you can bring in the law and pursue with official complaints and grievance procedures. This means that you can involve either ACAS or an Industrial Tribunal. You will also need to get hold of information about times, dates, how often these incidents occur, names and witnesses if you have any.

Being harassed or discriminated against is unacceptable but hopefully if more and more of these situations are brought to the employers who are actually officially responsible, then the less these situations are going to be tolerated