Lidl commits to anti-sexual harassment agreement with equality regulator

The deal comes two years after a tribunal found that Lidl GB had failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of a young female employee between 2019 and 2021. The case ”Miss M Hunter v Lidl Great Britain Ltd” concluded in 2023.

Under the Equality Act 2010, employers are responsible if harassment by another employee occurs and employers have not taken all steps they could to prevent it happening.  

The judge at the tribunal decided that managers at the store concerned were not aware of the company’s anti-harassment rules, that no risk assessments had been conducted and that Lidl GB relied on employees to submit complaints before taking action. 

The new agreement commits Lidl to a number of steps including running a staff survey around sexual harassment and developing a system to monitor informal complaints, as well as reviewing a sample of sexual harassment complaints from between 2023 and 2024 to assess trends. 

The EHRC said in a statement released today that Lidl had already taken multiple steps to improve protections for staff in the wake of the tribunal. This includded additional training for the managers involved, as well as bullying and harassment training rolled out across the wider business. A sexual harassment risk assessment was also completed. 

“No person should be subject to harassment in the workplace, so providing our colleagues with a safe and respectful environment is an absolute priority for us. That’s why we have robust policies and procedures in place which we’ve taken steps to further strengthen over the past few years,” said a Lidl GB spokesperson. 

”We continually look for opportunities to drive improvements to our processes and ways of working and, therefore, value the opportunity to work voluntarily with the EHRC, to see where we could define actions that will further support our values and colleague experience.”

In October last year, the Worker Protection Act came into force, which mandates that employers have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment even if no incidents between employees occur. 

“We welcome the improvements Lidl GB has already made since an employment tribunal ruled against them, and their willingness to take the further steps we have recommended. By signing this legal agreement, Lidl GB has committed to carrying out this work based on our expert advice,” said Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chairwoman of the EHRC. 

The legal agreement between the EHRC and Lidl GB is a Section 23 agreement under the Equality Act 2006.