New laws have been introduced aimed at combating sexual harassment at work. In line with the European Equal Treatment Directive, UK legislation now says that women who are sexually harassed at work do not need to show that a man would have been treated differently. A traditional defence from employers in sexual harassment cases has always been that the men in the office were subject to the same behaviour.

The TUC believes the changes should make it easier for women to prevent inappropriate behaviour and remarks of a lewd and sexual nature making their working lives a misery. UNISON welcomed the new legislation as "a powerful tool to end sexual harassment".

With the new regulations in place, women only need to prove that they have been treated in a way relating to their sex, which violated their dignity or was intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive.

From now on, if a colleague persits with remarks about "what nice legs" a female employee has, or her boss promises promotion if she goes away with him for the weekend, she should be able to claim sexual harassment.

"These changes will force employers to take their responsibilites towards providing a harassment-free working enviroment more seriously" said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

"There's no place in the modern workplace for office gropers and lechers and bosses need to do more to stop those responsible for bad behaviour from making working life unbearable for thousands of women".

UNISON national women's officer Sharon Greene said "All workers have the right to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace. "The union has camaigned for many years for employers to take sexual harassment seriously and to make it clear to their staff and managers that behaviour that creates a stressful or intimidating atmosphere will not be tolerated.

"The new legislation gives us a powerful tool to end sexual harassment and the abuse of power which it represents". But Barber added that there was still more to do in the area of sexual harassment.

"Although the legislation is an importment move in the right direction, its a shame that the government has not yet fully complied with the EU law on harassment, which says any harassment connected with being female should be banned, whether it is sexual conduct or not".