Harassment or Banter

09 Jul Harassment or Banter

I have acted on behalf of employers defending harassment claims for many years.  The word that makes me shiver when speaking to a client who is facing a claim of harassment is the word “banter”.

another’s and what often starts as a two-way affair often quickly degenerates with one of the parties feeling out of their depth.

To be clear on the definition harassment is any unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.

A one-off incident can amount to an act of harassment.

Harassment can also include treating someone less favourably because they have submitted or refused to submit to such behaviour in the past. We often find this happens when for example a workplace relationship has gone sour and one of the parties is in a position of authority

Harassment may also involve conduct of a sexual nature (sexual harassment), or it may be related to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.  These are what we call protected characteristics.

Really common examples of harassment are:

(a)            unwanted physical conduct or “horseplay”, including touching, pinching, pushing and grabbing;

(b)           continued suggestions for social activity after it has been made clear that such suggestions are unwelcome;

(c)            sending or displaying material that is pornographic or that some people may find offensive (including e-mails, text messages, video clips and images sent by mobile phone or posted on the internet);

(d)           unwelcome sexual advances or suggestive behaviour (which the harasser may perceive as harmless);