Sexual Harassment Statement 2024

KDDI Europe has a strong commitment to preventing, deterring, identifying and tackling all forms of sexual harassment that could occur in our organisation. We work hard to ensure absolute compliance with the standards set by The Equality Act 2010, and The Worker Protection Act 2023, as well as all UK government guidance, regulations and laws pertaining to the prevention of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment involves any unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature that violates an individual’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. The same as with other types of harassment, sexual harassment can include

• verbal harassment (inappropriate comments, jokes or propositions)
• non-verbal harassment (staring, suggestive gestures, sharing explicit content)
• physical harassment (unwanted physical contact, such as touching and groping).

The Worker Protection Act 2023 imposes a duty upon companies to take all reasonable steps to proactively prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. This is why we undertake a three pronged approach toward tackling sexual harassment –

• Sexual Harassment Risk Assessments and monitoring
• Training Programs
• Incident Reporting

A comprehensive internal risk assessment is conducted on an annual basis to identify potential risk areas and advise on the proactive measures to mitigate them (if any are identified).

The Company also, throughout the year, conducts proactive monitoring by using surveys to receive insights into employees’ experiences and their perceptions of harassment risks, workplace culture and safety. These surveys are conducted by the HR Department.

All employees will be provided with a regular, mandatory training that is relevant to their roles. Those training sessions will help employees identify and prevent harassment. This includes -

• Employees’ training / focus groups
• Management training
• E-learning and quizzes to test awareness and knowledge
• 1:1 and team meetings

The Company operates a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment and will not tolerate any incidents of this nature (this includes third parties). If, however, an incident occurs during working hours, after working hours, during a work event, a business trip, meeting, or during a private meeting with a work colleague, those incidents will be reported to our HR Department through a formal grievance procedure, which will thoroughly investigate and respond appropriately to any incident of this nature.

An employee making a complaint will always be able to choose whether they would like the complaint to be dealt with informally or formally.