Staff abused by customers can now hold employers to account under new law.
Employers in Great Britain can now be liable if they don’t take all reasonable steps to stop customers or patients from harassing staff. The rules, in force since 30th October, cover abuse linked to race, sex, disability, age, religion, sexuality or being trans.
The change comes from the Employment Rights Act 2025. It applies to harassment by anyone outside the workforce, such as customers, clients, patients and contractors. No specific legal protection against this kind of harassment has existed since 2013, when earlier rules were repealed.
The rules cover every protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 except pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership. Sexist abuse is covered as well as sexual harassment.
A shop worker racially abused by a customer could have a claim if their employer did nothing to stop it. So could a call centre worker taunted by a caller about their age, or for being trans.
Employers’ separate duty to prevent sexual harassment has also been strengthened, from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”. A 2020 Government Equalities Office survey found 29% of people in work had been sexually harassed in a work setting over the previous year.
Abbas Khan, an employment barrister with Barrister Connect, said: “For the first time in over a decade, employers cannot simply brush aside abuse of their staff by customers as something outside their control. For the shop worker, the bus driver or the hospital receptionist who has been told that abuse from the public is ‘part of the job’, the law now says otherwise. If an employer has not taken all reasonable steps to prevent it, they can be held liable. Customers are still free to disagree with people. What employers can no longer do is ignore abuse directed at their staff.”
Since 1 October, workers have had six months to bring most employment tribunal claims, up from three. Anyone considering a claim usually has to contact ACAS first for early conciliation.
