The Workers Protection Act

At long last the Workers Protection Act has finally come into force and will herald a new chapter in our industry.

For so many years now Unichef has fought against the disease of Sexual Harassment that has plagued Hospitality.In no other field of work or profession is harassment more prevalent than in Catering and it's one of the main causes of poor staff retention and engagement.

Ever since I was an apprentice back in 1974 women has been the subject of unwanted sexual attention and harassment to the point where sadly it just became "normalised" and in 2015 when we started Unichef it became our single core issue and a campaign we started and have watched gather and has now become law.

We have always maintained that the ONLY way to stop harassment kitchen was to legislate against it and now we have that vital piece of law that at last pushes doubt about what is harassment and who should be responsible into a much clearer picture.These definitions are clearly set out by ACAS as being..
 

• 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 reassignment
• displaying or sharing pornographic or sexual images, or other sexual content
• touching someone against their will, for example hugging them
• sexual assault or rape
  
  Finally now the onus is upon Companies, managers and Head chefs to police and be "proactive " against harassment in the workplace and finally those that suffer abuse can now see that the law is on their side and have that just support.
  
  Harassment at work is vile,unnecessary and unproductive,it has nothing to do with our profession and we now must all rise to the challenge and stamp it out once and for all.