Third party harassment: employees gain new protection from October 2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 contains provisions which provide employees with new protection against third party harassment from October 2026. This is achieved via amendments to the Equality Act 2010.

This article explains the background context to the introduction of protection from third party harassment and explains what this protection means in practical terms for employers.

Are employees currently protected against third party harassment?

For a short time between 2010 and 2013, there was express legal protection against third party harassment, but these provisions were repealed by the then Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2013. This means it is currently very difficult for an employee to bring a legal claim against their employer for unlawful harassment they suffer from a third party they encounter through their work.

Why is the law on third party harassment changing?

Since the repeal of the original third party harassment provisions, there have been various calls for this protection to be reintroduced. Perhaps most notably during the 2017 #MeToo movement and the President’s Club scandal of January 2018, where waitresses at a charity gala were allegedly sexually harassed and groped by patrons.

The new protection against third party harassment seeks to close this protection gap, particularly for frontline and customer-facing roles where the harassment risk workers face is particularly acute.

What is the new protection against third party harassment?

Under the new protection, employers must not ‘permit’ a third party to harass their employees. The employer ‘permits’ a third party to harass the employee if:

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

• the employer has failed to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent the third party from doing so.

A ‘third party’ includes any person which is not the employer or one of its employees. For example, this is broad enough to cover clients, customers, service-users, patients, suppliers, contractors and visitors.

This protection extends beyond sexual harassment and covers all forms of unlawful harassment based on:

• age

• disability

• gender reassignment

• race

• religion or belief

• sex

• sexual orientation.

The previous version of third-party harassment required a pattern of previous incidents (on at least two prior occasions), whereas one incident will be sufficient for this new protection.

For the claim to succeed, the employer must have failed to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent the third party from harassing the employee. This means the employer is likely to run into problems if there is a single preventative step which it was reasonable for the employer to take, but which it failed to implement.

What does third party harassment protection mean in practical terms for employers?

What this looks like in practice will vary depending on the organisation and the risks associated with particular roles. As a baseline, employers should focus on proactive prevention, including carrying out risk assessments, ensuring staff are trained to recognise and respond to incidents and investigating complaints thoroughly. Higher-risk environments may require more robust measures, such as restricting or excluding third parties who behave inappropriately. Consulting with staff bodies and trade unions is also key to identifying risks and agreeing effective mitigation strategies.

Employers should therefore take this opportunity to review and update their employment policies and supplier or third party agreements, ensuring expectations around behaviour and the consequences of harassment are clearly set out. This should be supported by targeted training, clear policies and reporting mechanisms and a documented risk assessment process tailored to the organisation’s specific risks.