Ikea has become legally obligated to do more to protect its staff from sexual assault and harassment in the workplace.
The Swedish furniture giant has signed a legally binding agreement with Britain’s equality regulator that will compel the company to improve its policies and practices on sexual harassment, it was announced on Thursday.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it had intervened after a former Ikea employee made a complaint about the company’s handling of workplace sexual assault and harassment.
The regulator—which exists to help U.K. employers prevent discrimination and harassment—can use its enforcement powers when allegations are made against a company.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ikea’s U.K. division has committed to reviewing the way it handles sexual harassment within the company.
Some of the steps it has agreed to take include communicating a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment to all of its staff, working with a specialist third-party legal partner to review its policies and processes relating to sexual harassment, and training all HR employees and line managers in the updated policies.
The legal agreement—which Ikea entered into voluntarily—is likely to remain in place until August 2025.
Ikea will ‘review and strengthen’ approach
Darren Taylor, people and culture manager at Ikea U.K. & Ireland, said in a statement on Thursday that the company “does not tolerate harassment of any kind.”
“We have robust policies and procedures in place to protect our coworkers and we take our responsibility to do so incredibly seriously,” he said.
“However, we also recognize and welcome opportunities to review and strengthen our approaches even further. Over the coming two-and-a-half years we will continue to work collaboratively with the EHRC to ensure the best possible working environment for our people.”
Further action may follow
Officials will monitor Ikea’s compliance with the agreement while it remains in place, ensuring that all promised actions are completed within agreed timescales.
Ikea has been engaged with the EHRC since February 2022, when the regulator was made aware of an allegation of sexual misconduct in one of the company’s U.K. stores, as well as of reports that the allegations were not appropriately dealt with by management.
Kishwer Falkner, chairwoman of the EHRC, said in a statement on Thursday that training and development work had already been completed at the store at the center of the allegations against Ikea—a move she labeled “a sign of Ikea’s commitment to better practice.”
“Employers should not assume that a low level of reporting means there is no problem with sexual harassment in the workplace, or that policies and procedures alone are enough to stop harassment from happening,” she said.
A spokesperson for the EHRC told Fortune on Thursday that the regulator had determined the legal agreement to be the best course of action for Ikea, given the nature of the complaint being made against it.
However, they noted that “doesn’t mean we can’t take further stronger action” should the company fail to comply with the terms it had agreed to, noting that holiday camp Pontins had been put under a formal investigation after failing to comply with a similar legal agreement regarding allegations of racial discrimination at the company.
Other companies to have entered legally binding agreements with the EHRC include McDonald’s, which signed an agreement in February in response to concerns over the handling of sexual harassment complaints from employees, and supermarket giant Sainsbury’s, which signed a document with the EHRC in 2020 after being found liable for sexual harassment against a member of staff.
