Emma Watson, the Harry Potter film franchise actress, is aiming to empower women in the workplace by setting up a free hotline that provides legal advice to women in England and Wales. Specifically, the telephone service is designed to help women who may be suffering from sexual harassment at work. Callers can talk through the process of bringing a complaint against an employer and have the relevant law and procedure explained to them.
When launching the service, Watson said, “It’s completely staggering to think that this is the only service of its type given that research has found that as many as one in two women experience sexual harassment in the workplace,” citing data collected by the Trades Union Congress in 2016. Watson continued, “Understanding what your rights are, how you can assert them, and the choices you have if you’ve experienced harassment, is such a vital part of creating safe workplaces for everyone, and this advice line is such a huge development in ensuring that all women are supported, wherever we work.”
As a charity, the support line will be funded in the future by the Time’s Up U.K. Justice and Equality Fund.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
