Third-party harassment is coming back: are you ready?

What happens if a customer harasses one of your employees?

The customer does not work for you, and you may have had no idea that the harassment was going to happen. Could your organisation still be legally responsible?

From 30 October 2026, potentially yes.

New rules will protect employees from harassment by third parties. This means people who are not employed by the organisation, such as customers, clients, contractors, service users or other business contacts.

An employer could face a claim if an employee is harassed by a third party in the course of their employment and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it.

One incident could be enough

This is not the first time that UK discrimination law has dealt with third-party harassment.

Under an older version of the law, an employer generally needed to know about two previous incidents of harassment before it could become liable. This was sometimes known as the “three strikes” rule. Those provisions were repealed in 2013.

The new rules are different. There is no three strikes rule, and a single incident could potentially result in a claim.

Where could the risk arise?

HR teams therefore need to think beyond the behaviour of their own employees.

Third-party harassment may be an obvious risk in areas such as hospitality, retail and healthcare, where employees regularly deal with members of the public.

But it can arise in many other situations. Employees might deal with contractors, attend conferences, entertain clients, visit customers’ homes or work alongside people employed by other organisations.

Employers should identify where these risks could arise and consider what reasonable steps they can take to reduce them.

What could employers do?

Depending on the workplace and the risks involved, reasonable steps might include:

• telling customers and service users that harassment of staff will not be tolerated;
• including appropriate clauses in contracts with clients and contractors;
• requiring contractors to deal with individuals who behave inappropriately;
• avoiding lone working where there is a higher risk of harassment;
• providing alarms or code words for employees working in higher-risk situations; and
• making sure employees know they should report harassment by customers and other third parties.

Employers cannot control everything a customer, client or contractor might do. But that does not mean they can ignore the risk.

For HR, the message is clear: from October, preventing harassment will mean looking beyond your own workforce and thinking about everyone your employees come into contact with at work.

About Jon Dunkley

Jon Dunkley is a Partner at Wollens and heads up the firm’s Regulatory Department. Based at our North Devon office, Jon is a highly experienced solicitor with a broad commercial and regulatory practice, supporting businesses, professionals and senior employees across a wide range of legal issues.

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