Harassed by a customer or client? What changes on 30 October 2026

Updated 18 September 2026

If a customer, a client, a patient or a member of the public harasses you at work, the law until now has mostly looked past your employer. That changes on 30 October 2026. From that date the Employment Rights Act 2025 makes employers answerable for harassment by third parties when they failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it, and it raises the standard on sexual harassment prevention at the same time.

What changes on 30 October 2026

Two changes land together, both in the Equality Act 2010, and both are confirmed in the government's implementation timeline update and on the Acas Employment Rights Act page, last updated on 14 September 2026. The government's own employer guidance on sexual harassment and third-party harassment was refreshed on 17 September 2026 with the same date.

• 26 October 2024: employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees (section 40A, added by the Worker Protection Act 2023).
• 6 April 2026: reporting sexual harassment can count as a protected whistleblowing disclosure.
• 1 October 2026: the ordinary tribunal time limit for acts on or after this date becomes six months less a day.
• 30 October 2026: the sexual harassment duty becomes "all reasonable steps", and employers must not permit third parties to harass their employees.
• 2027, date not yet set: regulations saying which steps count as reasonable, and the new limits on confidentiality clauses.

The two 30 October changes do different jobs. One tightens a duty that already exists. The other creates a route to your employer that has not existed since 2013. Neither changes what harassment is. That definition, in section 26 of the Equality Act, stays as it is.

What does "third-party harassment" mean in law?

Section 21 of the Employment Rights Act inserts three new subsections into section 40 of the Equality Act. The wording on legislation.gov.uk is short. An employer must not permit a third party to harass one of its employees. It permits that harassment only if two things are true: the third party harassed you in the course of your employment, and the employer failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent the third party from doing so.

A third party is anyone other than your employer and your employer's own employees. That is deliberately wide. It catches the obvious cases, such as shoppers, diners, passengers, patients, their relatives, and clients you visit. It also catches people who are not customers at all: a contractor's staff on your site, a supplier's driver, a visitor to the building, a member of the public outside the door you are working at.

"Harass" carries its normal Equality Act meaning. Under section 26 that covers three things:

• unwanted conduct related to age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, which violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for you;
• unwanted conduct of a sexual nature with the same purpose or effect;
• treating you less favourably because you rejected, or gave in to, that kind of conduct.

Two protected characteristics are missing from that list: pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership. Poor treatment linked to those is usually argued as direct discrimination, not harassment. If a customer's abuse is about your pregnancy, the harassment route may not fit, and that is a conversation to have with an adviser rather than a reason to give up.

Bullying that has nothing to do with a protected characteristic is still outside the Equality Act. A customer who shouts at everyone about a late delivery is not harassing you in the legal sense, however unpleasant it is. Our guide to workplace harassment sets out where that line sits.

Who is protected?

The new subsection protects "a person who is an employee" of the employer. In the Equality Act that word is wider than it sounds. Section 83 defines employment as work under a contract of employment, a contract of apprenticeship or a contract personally to do work. Many people an employment lawyer would call workers, rather than employees, fall inside it. If you are unsure which side of the line you are on, read worker or employee before you assume you are out.

The rule applies in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own equality law and is not covered by this change.

Why this was not the law already

It was, once. The Equality Act 2010 as first passed made employers liable for harassment of their staff by third parties, but only once the employer knew you had been harassed by a third party on at least two other occasions, and only if it failed to take reasonably practicable steps to stop it. Those provisions, section 40(2) to (4), were repealed on 1 October 2013 by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. The repeal is recorded on the legislation.gov.uk page for section 40.

Between 2013 and now, a worker harassed by a customer generally had no direct Equality Act claim against the employer for the customer's conduct. The 2026 version is stronger than the 2010 one in one practical way: there is no "two other occasions" condition, so the first incident can be enough if the employer had not taken all reasonable steps. The question is simply whether the employer took all reasonable steps.

What "all reasonable steps" means, and why one word matters

Since 26 October 2024, section 40A of the Equality Act has required employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees. Section 20 of the Employment Rights Act makes one change: it inserts the word "all" before "reasonable steps".

That word already has a track record. When a colleague harasses you, section 109(4) lets the employer escape liability only if it shows it "took all reasonable steps" to prevent it. Tribunals applying that defence ask whether there was anything more the employer could reasonably have done, not whether it did something. A policy in a drawer and a one-off training slide have rarely been enough.

What would count? No regulations exist yet. Section 22 of the Act gives ministers a power to specify steps that are to be regarded as reasonable, and it names the kinds of step they have in mind: carrying out assessments, publishing plans or policies, steps about reporting sexual harassment, and steps about how complaints are handled. DLA Piper and Fox Williams both report that those regulations are not expected until 2027. So from 30 October 2026 employers have to meet the higher standard before the detailed list exists.

From your side of the counter, the practical questions are the ones a tribunal would ask:

• Did the employer know this kind of customer contact carries a risk, and did it assess it?
• Is there a clear way to report harassment by a customer, and does anyone act on the reports?
• After earlier complaints, did the employer change anything, such as moving you off that account, pairing staff, banning the person, or warning them?
• When you complained, was it investigated, and were you told what happened?

An employer that has already been told about a particular customer and did nothing is in the weakest position. That is also the case you can document most easily.

What you can claim, and what it is worth

If a tribunal finds that your employer permitted third-party harassment, the claim is an ordinary Equality Act harassment claim against the employer. Compensation follows the usual discrimination approach: financial loss, and an award for injury to feelings. The employer, not the customer, is the respondent.

Sexual harassment claims carry an extra lever. Under section 124A, in force since 26 October 2024, where a tribunal upholds a sexual harassment claim and finds the employer breached its section 40A prevention duty, it may increase compensation by up to 25 per cent. From 30 October 2026 that breach is judged against the "all reasonable steps" standard. The uplift applies to sexual harassment only. It does not apply to harassment related to race, disability or the other characteristics.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission can also enforce the section 40A duty against an employer, whether or not anyone has brought a claim. That matters if you want the problem fixed for the people who come after you, not only compensation.

Does it cover things that happened before 30 October 2026?

Nothing the government has published says the new duty reaches back. Treat the third-party rule, and the "all reasonable steps" wording, as applying to harassment from 30 October 2026 onward. For a customer's conduct before that date, the old law applies, which has no direct third-party duty. Some pre-October situations can still be claims in other ways, for example where the employer's own response to a complaint was itself discriminatory, but that needs individual advice.

If the harassment is a pattern that runs across 30 October, record every incident with its date. Where conduct extends over a period, time can run from the end of that period, and the later incidents may fall under the new rule.

The clock: how long you have

For acts on or after 1 October 2026, the ordinary limit for a harassment claim is six months less one day from the act. Every third-party claim under the new rule will therefore be on the six-month clock. Before you can issue a claim you must contact Acas for early conciliation, and doing so pauses the clock. Our step-by-step guide to early conciliation covers the form.

A report to your manager, a grievance, an internal investigation or an appeal does not pause the deadline. People lose good claims waiting for an outcome letter. The discrimination time limits page explains continuing acts and the "just and equitable" extension, and the tribunal deadline calculator will give you a working date once you know when the last incident happened.

What to do if a customer or client is harassing you

1. Write it down the same day. Date, time, place, what was said or done, who saw it, and any booking reference, account name or CCTV camera that covers the spot. Acas gives the same advice: dates, times and names, including witnesses.
2. Report it through the route your employer names, in writing, and keep a copy. If there is no route, email your manager. A written report is what later proves the employer knew.
3. Ask what will change. A short follow-up asking what steps will be taken to stop it happening again is reasonable, and the answer, or the silence, becomes evidence.
4. Raise a formal grievance if nothing changes. Our guide to raising a workplace grievance covers wording and timing.
5. Protect the deadline. Contact Acas for early conciliation before the six months run out, even while the grievance is still open.

If you report sexual harassment and are then treated badly for it, that report can also be a protected disclosure. Section 23 of the Act added sexual harassment to the list of qualifying disclosures from 6 April 2026, which brings in whistleblowing protection. The whistleblowing time limits page covers that claim.

If the situation is so bad you are thinking of resigning, do not resign first and ask later. Resigning can be a constructive dismissal, which has its own rules and its own clock. Speak to Acas, a solicitor or your union before you hand in a letter.

What is still to come

Two linked pieces are not in force yet. The regulations specifying reasonable steps are expected in 2027 after consultation. Section 24 of the Act will make void any clause in an agreement that stops a worker making allegations or disclosures about harassment or discrimination, or about how the employer responded to them, subject to exceptions set by regulations. Acas lists the non-disclosure agreement change for 2027 with no confirmed date. Until it starts, read any settlement agreement confidentiality clause with care, and get the independent advice the agreement requires anyway.

Dates on the wider rollout are on our Employment Rights Act changes page. This page will be updated if the government changes the 30 October date or publishes the reasonable steps regulations.

This is general information for England, Wales and Scotland, not legal advice. For your own situation, speak to Acas, a solicitor, or your union.