Employers must now take all reasonable steps to stop sexual harassment, including by customers
Employment law firm Citation is advising operators to revisit risk assessments, name customers and other outsiders in policies, and give managers clear reporting procedures.
Employers in pubs and wider hospitality now carry a stronger legal duty to prevent sexual harassment of staff, including harassment by customers, The Morning Advertiser reported on 30 October 2026.
The previous duty required employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. According to the publication, it has been extended so that employers must take “all reasonable steps”.
The Morning Advertiser said the change comes under legislation introduced to Parliament as the Employment Rights Bill in October 2024. Its report did not give a specific commencement date.
Harassment from outside the business
Employers must also not permit third parties to harass their staff. Third parties are people from outside the business whom employees deal with at work, such as customers, delivery drivers, contractors and entertainers including musicians.
The publication said this protection against harassment covers the following characteristics under the Equality Act: age, gender reassignment, disability, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
The change matters most to businesses whose employees spend their shifts dealing with the public, such as bar teams and front-of-house staff, who serve and greet guests. Operators will have to work out how staff are kept safe during contact with guests and visitors. Managers will also need to know what to do when someone raises a complaint.
The Morning Advertiser noted that failure to comply can lead to an employment tribunal, the body that hears workplace disputes.
A higher bar
The new wording sets a higher standard than before. Gil McAteer, director of employment law at HR and employment law firm Citation, told The Morning Advertiser that the two tests may sound alike but are judged very differently by a tribunal.
He said meeting the “all reasonable steps” test means being able to show that a business considered every option open to it, not only the measures it already had in place.
“Add third-party harassment into the mix and any business with customer-facing staff needs to think about protection that goes beyond internal HR policy,” McAteer said.
What Citation recommends
Citation set out several steps for operators:
- Risk assessments: revisit existing sexual harassment risk assessments and question whether they amount to all reasonable steps.
- Policies: extend anti-harassment policies to cover customers, clients and other non-colleagues, and consider naming these groups explicitly.
- Training: extend training so staff know how to report incidents involving customers or clients.
- Reporting: give managers clear processes for handling reports when they come in.
In practice, that means checking whether a policy written mainly with colleagues in mind still holds up when the person causing harm is a guest, a supplier or a booked act.