Employer Liability for Third Party Harassment – effective from 30 October 2026

30 October 2026 sees a very important moment in the development of harassment law in the UK. Every employer now has potential liability where one of its employees is harassed by a third party.

Up until now, employers have been liable only for the conduct of their own employees, and not for discriminatory harassment by third parties (eg customers, suppliers, members of the public). That will change on 30 October 2026 and an employer will now be liable where:

• A third party harasses an employee in the course of their employment; and

• The employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent that harassment

Unlike a previous short-lived iteration of this law, under which the employer would only be liable on the third occasion of such harassment, liability will now apply to any act of harassment by a third party on grounds of any protected characteristic. So, if for example, an employee is verbally abused by a member of the public on grounds of age, race or sexual orientation, or is subject to sexual harassment by a client, the employer will be liable unless it has taken all reasonable steps to prevent that harassment.

The reasonable steps that an employer needs to take will depend on a number of factors (eg its size, industry, risk profile), but employers should certainly be considering the following:

• Risk assessments: identify the high-risk areas of third party harassment in your business. These might be:

  • staff in public or customer-facing roles

  • overnight events involving alcohol

  • staff who interact with others in high-stress situations

• Training – ensure staff are trained in assessing risk, bystander intervention and how to record and manage incidents

• Update policies – ensure staff know what to do if they are harassed

• Update terms and conditions with suppliers and customers – employers will want to satisfy themselves that staff of suppliers and customers have been appropriately trained

• Consider appropriate signage/website notices

There are unfortunately many employees who are harassed whilst carrying out their jobs.  Employers cannot control how every third party behaves but they now have a clear obligation to take considerable positive steps to try to prevent such harassment of their workers.