Lesson 4 – Harassment and Victimisation

4.1 Harassment

Harassment generally involves unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of:

• Violating a person’s dignity; or
• Creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

Harassment may involve:

• Spoken comments;
• Jokes;
• Mimicking;
• Gestures;
• Emails or messages;
• Social-media content;
• Images;
• Deliberate exclusion; or
• Repeatedly using disrespectful language.

Official guidance for letting practices describes harassment as unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

4.2 Property-sector examples

Potential harassment may include:

• Mocking an applicant’s accent;
• Making offensive comments about a tenant’s disability;
• Making sexual comments during a viewing;
• Deliberately humiliating a transgender customer;
• Making racist jokes in front of a contractor or customer;
• Ridiculing a customer’s religious clothing;
• Repeatedly making age-related comments; or
• Sending offensive material through a work communication channel.

A person may be affected by conduct even if it was not directed specifically at them.

4.3 Intention is not the only consideration

An employee cannot necessarily avoid responsibility by saying:

• “It was only a joke”;
• “I did not mean to offend anyone”; or
• “No one complained at the time.”

The effect of the conduct, the circumstances and whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect may all be relevant.

4.4 Victimisation

Victimisation occurs when someone suffers a detriment because they have carried out, or are believed likely to carry out, a protected act.

A protected act may include:

• Making a discrimination complaint;
• Supporting another person’s complaint;
• Giving evidence;
• Bringing Equality Act proceedings;
• Alleging that equality law has been breached; or
• Providing information connected with a discrimination complaint.

4.5 Examples of victimisation

Potential victimisation may include:

• Cancelling a viewing because the applicant complained of discrimination;
• Giving a tenant a poorer service after they supported another tenant’s complaint;
• Removing an employee from a transaction because they reported discriminatory instructions;
• Refusing future services to someone because they brought an equality claim; or
• Labelling a customer as a troublemaker because they raised an equality concern.

4.6 Responding to complaints

Staff should:

• Take equality complaints seriously;
• Avoid defensive or retaliatory behaviour;
• Preserve relevant records;
• Refer the matter to the appropriate manager;
• Maintain confidentiality;
• Continue providing a professional service; and
• Follow MyEstate’s complaints procedure.

Lesson 4 key point

Customers and employees must not be subjected to offensive conduct or disadvantaged because they raised or supported an equality concern.