Reporting Sexual Harassment at Work Is Now a Protected Whistleblowing Disclosure — What Employers and Workers Need to Know

Since 6 April 2026, a worker who reports sexual harassment at work now has explicit legal protection under whistleblowing law — a significant, and until recently under-discussed, change buried inside the wider Employment Rights Act reforms rolling out through 2026 and 2027.

What actually changed

From 6 April 2026, reporting that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring, or is likely to occur expressly qualifies as a protected disclosure under section 43B of the Employment Rights Act 1996, following an amendment inserted by the Employment Rights Act 2025 that created a new, standalone category specifically for sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment is defined for these purposes as "unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment", matching the existing Equality Act 2010 definition.

Crucially, the protection applies regardless of when the harassment happened — past, present or anticipated conduct all qualify, provided the worker meets the other standard whistleblowing tests (a reasonable belief that the disclosure is substantially true, and that it's made in the public interest).

Why this matters, practically

Before this change, a worker reporting sexual harassment had to try to fit their disclosure into one of the existing whistleblowing categories — such as a breach of a legal obligation or a danger to health and safety — which wasn't always a clean fit and left some genuine reports without whistleblowing protection. Now it's explicit: report sexual harassment, and you're protected from detriment (adverse treatment, such as being passed over for promotion, moved to a worse role, or excluded) and from unfair dismissal connected to making that report.

This sits alongside — but is legally distinct from — the employer's separate proactive duty to take "all reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment in the first place, and the newer duty covering harassment by third parties (customers, clients, contractors), which was pushed back from 1 October to 30 October 2026 in the government's updated implementation timeline published 16 July 2026. The prevention duty is about stopping harassment happening; the whistleblowing change is about protecting the person who speaks up when it does.

Checklist: what employers should do now

1. Update your whistleblowing policy to explicitly reference sexual harassment as a qualifying disclosure category, not just as a general grievance matter.
2. Train managers and HR to recognise that a sexual harassment report may trigger whistleblowing protections, which carry different (and in unfair dismissal terms, more serious) legal consequences than an ordinary grievance if handled badly.
3. Review your grievance and disciplinary procedures to ensure someone who raises a sexual harassment concern isn't treated adversely afterward, even informally (e.g. excluded from projects, given worse shifts, or subtly frozen out).
4. Separately track the 30 October 2026 "all reasonable steps" duty deadline — it's a different requirement with its own compliance checklist, not something this whistleblowing change replaces.
5. Keep records of any sexual harassment disclosure and the outcome, since whistleblowing detriment and unfair dismissal claims can be brought without a qualifying period, unlike ordinary unfair dismissal claims.

Checklist: what workers should know

1. A sexual harassment report you make can now count as a protected disclosure, separate from — and in addition to — a standard harassment grievance or Equality Act claim.
2. You don't need to wait for a formal grievance outcome to be protected; the disclosure itself, if reasonably believed and made in the public interest, is what triggers protection.
3. If you experience negative treatment after reporting, that may be actionable as whistleblowing detriment, which is worth raising with a union rep, ACAS, or an employment solicitor.

How the UK compares internationally

In the United States, whistleblower protection for harassment reports is more fragmented — it typically depends on state law or specific federal statutes (like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act) rather than a single unified whistleblowing framework. Australia's Fair Work Act similarly protects workers who make complaints about workplace conduct from adverse action, though it doesn't have a distinct "qualifying disclosure" whistleblowing category in the same structural sense as the UK's Public Interest Disclosure Act framework.

Key Numbers

• Whistleblowing protection effective: 6 April 2026
• "All reasonable steps" prevention duty (separate deadline): 30 October 2026
• NDA voiding harassment/discrimination disclosures: expected 2027

Sources

• VinciWorks: Protected whistleblowing disclosures — what the ERA changes mean for sexual harassment
• Weightmans: Employment Rights Act Series — sexual harassment reports = protected disclosures
• Brabners: Whistleblowing & Sexual Harassment — New Protections From April 2026
• VinciWorks: Employment Rights Act 2025 implementation timeline, updated July 2026

Educational content only — not financial advice.