Sexual Harassment

To be considered sexual harassment, the behaviour must be unwanted and of a sexual nature, it must have either:

• violated your dignity, whether intended or not

• created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you, whether intended or not

Some examples of sexual harassment include (but aren't limited to):

• flirting, gesturing or making sexual remarks about someone's body, clothing or appearance

• asking questions about someone's sex life

• telling sexually offensive jokes

• making sexual comments or jokes about someone's sexual orientation or gender identity

• displaying or sharing pornographic or sexual images, or other sexual content

• touching someone against their will - for example, hugging them

• sexual assault or rape

Sexual harassment can happen to men, women and people of any gender identity or sexual orientation. It can be carried out by anyone of the same sex, a different sex, or anyone of any gender identity.

You could experience sexual harassment from anyone you come into contact with including colleagues, managers/supervisors, someone else in authority, clients, suppliers or members of the public

We'll treat any complaint about sexual harassment seriously, all the while taking into account the sensitivity and confidentiality of your complaint.

You should report any examples of sexual harassment to your manager, a member of the operations team, or HR.

When you raise a concern sexual harassment, we'll talk to you to find out how we can best resolve things. To help us, its really important that you give us as much specific detail as possible including times, dates, details of what was said and any witnesses. Whilst there's no legal right for you to be accompanied at this point, we're happy to consider your request to have a companion with you.

We'll ask you if you want to deal with the situation informally or use our formal grievance process. If you'd like to use the informal approach, we'll give you advice and support, encourage you to talk to the offending person (or offer do this for or with you), or we may ask you to engage in mediation. We'll also look at any assistance available in the form of counselling, colleagues trained in dealing with sexual harassment, advice from your trade union or refer you to external specialist organisations.

If your complaint is considered extremely serious, we may have to investigate formally even if you'd prefer it to be dealt with informally.

In some circumstances we may decide it is better to separate you from the person you've made a complaint against. This could mean moving one or both of you to a different shift, location or work area, or suspending one or both of you from duty. This will only be done in a legitimate attempt to protect both of you and should never been seen as a punishment.

If you've been subjected to conduct amounting to a criminal offence (such as sexual or physical assault), please talk to your manager. They'll help you decide whether to raise a formal complaint with the police and will support you in any way possible. With your permission, they'll liaise with HR to make sure full support is offered to you. They may also be able to arrange some special discretionary compassionate leave for you.

In most cases, we'll respect your decision if you choose not to inform the police, but if we think there's an ongoing risk to you or to others safety, we may have to inform the police ourselves (but we'll always discuss this with you first). We'll not normally wait for the outcome of any police investigation before investigating and deciding if disciplinary action is needed.

There are various helplines that can offer advice and support. A few examples are:

• Victim Support - 0800 8168 9111

• Victim Support Scotland - 0800 160 1685

• Rape Crisis England & Wales - 0808 500 222

• 24/7 Rape & Sexual Abuse Support Line - 0808 500 222

We'll keep you informed of our investigation and any actions we take and we'll keep an eye on things to make sure the unacceptable behaviour or treatment has stopped and that you, or others, are not treated unfairly as a result of raising your concerns. We'll also keep a record of our investigation and any outcomes.

Sometimes a lot of time goes by before someone feels comfortable enough to raise a complaint, especially in instances of sexual harassment. We're committed to taking every complaint seriously, no matter how long ago it took place and we'll do our best to investigate, although we might be unable to carry out a full investigation if the person you are accusing no longer works for us, witnesses no longer work for us, or evidence would have been destroyed as it was too long ago.

If you witness a colleague being sexually harassed at work, and as long as it is safe to do so, you may want to try to prevent it from happening.

If you want to report the incident, you don't need the permission of the victim to do so.

You can support the person who's been sexually harassed by reporting what you've seen, providing a witness statement or attending a hearing as a witness, or you can make a complaint yourself if what you have witnessed violates your own dignity or created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you.

We have a duty of care to you, and we'll take all necessary steps to ensure you're working in a safe and secure environment and that sexual harassment doesn't happen in our salons or head office.

In addition we'll:

• aim to offer training and education to all of our team on how to recognise and understand sexual harassment and your role in developing a culture free from sexual harassment

• assess factors that may increase risk of sexual harassment, such as lone working, and ensure sufficient arrangements are put in place

• create a zero-tolerance culture by handling complaints via the correct procedures, never covering up a complaint, and taking action against any perpetrator of sexual harassment.

• foster a working environment that supports the dignity and respect of all and is free form sexual harassment

• provide you with our grievance procedure that ensures we're dealing with and properly managing any complaint

• ensure any other policies that run in conjuction with this policy are up to date and regularly reviewed (such as our disciplinary & grievance policy)