CHANGES to the law will make it easier for women workers to fight back against lewd remarks at work.

The new legislation, under the European Equal Treatment Directive, which came into effect on Saturday, would strengthen laws against harassment, says the TUC.

If a colleague persisted in making remarks about what nice legs a female employee had, or her boss promised her promotion if she went away with him for the weekend, she should be able to claim that this was sexual harassment, said the union organisation.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 would implement the amended Equal Treatment Directive (2002/73/EC).

This updates the law covering equality between men and women in the workplace to take into account changes to the EU Treaty and developments in European case law since the original Equal Treatment Directive was published in 1976.

A DTI spokeswoman said: "In particular, the regulations amend the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) to make explicit the fact that discrim- ination on the grounds of pregnancy and maternity leave and sexual harassment and harassment on the grounds of sex are unlawful.

"We also took the opportunity to amend the SDA, so that it is in line, as far as possible, with other legislation tackling discrimination on the grounds of race, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation in the fields of employment and vocational training."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "It is completely unacceptable for anyone to have to work with colleagues who persist in making lewd and suggestive remarks or to have to do their job in a workspace where the walls are plastered with the pictures of topless models. Unfortunately, this is still the reality for far too many women.

"This change in the law will force employers to take their responsibilities towards providing a harassment-free working environment more seriously.

"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."

A Confederation of British Industry spokesman said: "These changes close a small number of loopholes in what is already very comprehensive protection from sexual harassment.

"Employers welcome this move - there is no place for disrespectful behaviour in our society, whether at work or elsewhere."

But the Forum of Private Business, which represents more than 25,000 small to medium-sized firms nationwide, said the changes meant companies faced "legalised blackmail".

National spokesman Rex Garratt said: "Employers will view these changes to tribunals with a sense of utter dread.

"Tribunals are already bleeding businesses dry because they are so heavily loaded in favour of employees.

"Businesses face legalised blackmail as the costs of defending a case deny them justice from vexatious ex-employees on the make, supported by ambulance-chasing advisors who encourage doubtful claims."

He added: "Private businesses want to treat their employees fairly, but they need to be alerted to the fact that they are now a prime target for the compensation culture.

"This compensation culture has seen a doubling in the amount of compensation awarded in 2004 in the key areas of sex, disability and racial discrimination.

"One reason for the spiralling costs is that employment tribunals seem to have become even more complex than courts of law, and employers are falling victim to the practice of exploiting political correctness for financial gain."