Third-party harassment: what employers need to know from 30th October

From 30th October 2026, employers have new responsibilities around harassment by third parties, such as customers, clients and members of the public.

If your employees deal with people outside your organisation — whether in a shop, café, salon, care setting, office, call centre, trade or customer's home — these changes are relevant to you.

What is changing?

Employers can be liable for harassment by people they do not employ.

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, an employee may have a claim against their employer where a third party harasses them in the course of their employment and the employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.

Who counts as a third party?

A third party is someone other than the employer or one of its employees. Depending on your business, this could include:

• Customers and clients

• Patients and service users

• Contractors and subcontractors

• Suppliers and delivery drivers

• Visitors

• Members of the public

The list isn't exhaustive — the important point is that the person carrying out the harassment does not have to work for you.

What does it cover?

The protection covers harassment related to the following protected characteristics:

• Age

• Disability

• Gender reassignment

• Race

• Religion or belief

• Sex

• Sexual orientation

It also covers sexual harassment.

The legal test for harassment depends on the nature of the conduct and the circumstances in which it takes place. Not every unpleasant or offensive interaction will automatically amount to unlawful harassment.

Your protection is the steps you take

The key issue for employers is whether they took all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment.

If you knew about a risk and did nothing, or failed to respond appropriately to previous incidents, that could make it harder to demonstrate that you took reasonable steps.

This means employers should be able to show not just that they have a policy, but that they have identified risks, put controls in place, trained staff and acted when problems were reported.

There is no minimum length of service required for an employee to have protection against unlawful harassment.

Who is most affected?

The changes are particularly relevant to businesses where employees regularly deal with people outside the organisation, including:

• Hospitality and leisure

• Retail

• Hair and beauty

• Care and healthcare

• Call centres and customer service

• Transport and delivery

• Trades and engineers working in customers' homes

• Businesses where employees deal with members of the public online or by telephone

What should employers do before 30th October?

1. Assess the risks

Think about where employees could be exposed to harassment by customers, clients or other third parties.

Consider situations such as:

• Lone working

• Late-night work

• Alcohol-related incidents

• Home visits

• Dealing with complaints

• Telephone and online abuse

• Working with vulnerable customers or service users

Record the risks you identify and the steps you will take to reduce them.

2. Make your expectations clear

Tell customers and other third parties that harassment and abusive behaviour towards your employees will not be tolerated.

This could be communicated through signs, websites, booking information, customer terms or other appropriate communications.

3. Give employees the backing to act

Employees should know what they can do if a situation becomes unacceptable.

Make sure they know:

• When they can end a conversation or interaction

• When they can refuse service or leave a situation

• Who they should contact for support

• What to do if they feel unsafe

4. Make reporting straightforward

Employees should know exactly how to report an incident involving a customer or other third party.

They should also know that raising a concern will be taken seriously.

5. Act when incidents are reported

Don't simply record an incident and move on.

Depending on the circumstances, action could include warning a customer, restricting access, refusing future service, ending a contract or contacting the police where appropriate.

Repeated incidents should also trigger a review of your risk assessment and preventative measures.

6. Train managers and employees

Harassment training should cover situations involving third parties, not just behaviour between colleagues.

Managers should understand how to respond when an employee reports harassment by a customer, client or member of the public.

7. Keep evidence of the steps you have taken

If a claim is brought, being able to demonstrate what you did can be important.

Keep appropriate records of:

• Risk assessments

• Policies and procedures

• Training

• Reported incidents

• Actions taken

• Reviews following incidents

The aim isn't simply to have paperwork in place. It's to demonstrate that preventing harassment is actively managed within your organisation.

Don't forget sexual harassment

These changes sit alongside the existing duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work.

From 30th October 2026, that duty is strengthened to require employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.

For many businesses, the same risk assessment, training, reporting and preventative measures can help address both duties.

How SignalHR can help

SignalHR's Harassment Risk Assessment helps you identify potential harassment risks in your workplace, including risks arising from customers, clients and other third parties, and turns those findings into an action plan.

You can find it in HR Toolkit → Create.

The Policy Builder also includes a Bullying & Harassment Policy designed to reflect the updated legal requirements.

And if you're dealing with a specific situation, you can ask SignalHR how to handle a complaint involving a customer, client or other third party.

The law is changing. Make sure your workplace is ready before 30th October 2026.