From Friday, your employer has to protect you from abusive customers
What happened
A new legal duty on employers came into force on 30 October 2026. It makes employers responsible for protecting staff from harassment by people outside the organisation. That means customers, clients, suppliers and members of the public. Not just colleagues. The change comes from sections 20, 21 and 22 of the Employment Rights Act 2025. A commencement order, SI 2026/1065, made on 1 October 2026, set 30 October 2026 as the date those sections take effect in England, Wales and Scotland. Under the new rules, an employer will have 'permitted' third-party harassment where someone outside the workforce harasses an employee during the course of their employment, and the employer failed to take 'all reasonable steps' to prevent it. There is a second change on the same date. The existing duty to prevent sexual harassment has been strengthened. It previously required 'reasonable steps'. It now requires 'all reasonable steps', bringing it into line with the broader new duty. The new third-party duty is not limited to sexual harassment. It covers harassment related to protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, although pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership, are excluded.
Why this matters
If you work with the public, you probably already know why. Shop workers, bus drivers, receptionists, delivery drivers, pharmacy staff, care workers, call handlers, hospitality staff. Abuse from the public has long been treated as an occupational hazard: unpleasant, frequent, and nobody's legal responsibility in particular. This is the change. Where the harassment relates to a protected characteristic, such as race, sex, disability, religion, age or sexual orientation, and the employer has not taken all reasonable steps to prevent it, the employer can now be liable. The shift from 'reasonable steps' to 'all reasonable steps' sounds like legal fussing. It is not. It raises the bar. Under the old wording an employer could point to some measures and argue they were reasonable. Under the new wording the question becomes whether anything further could reasonably have been done, and if so, why it was not. In practice that tends to mean written policies are no longer enough on their own. Training, reporting routes, risk assessment for public-facing roles, and actually acting on reports all come into play.
What the evidence actually says
This area has produced some confident and not entirely accurate commentary, so it is worth being careful. Well established across legal sources: the commencement date of 30 October 2026; the statutory instrument SI 2026/1065 made on 1 October 2026; that sections 20, 21 and 22 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 are the relevant provisions; that it applies in England, Wales and Scotland; that the test is 'all reasonable steps'; that it covers third parties; and that pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership, are excluded from the third-party duty. One source gave 1 October 2026 as the start date. That conflicts with the commencement order and with the other sources, and appears to be an error, most likely confusing the date the order was made with the date it takes effect. Also unverified: a claim circulating in consumer-facing coverage about uncapped compensation and a 25% uplift for breaches. We could not confirm that against the legislation or official guidance, and would not repeat it as fact. If compensation matters to your situation, that is a question for proper advice rather than a news article. A further honest limitation: this is new law. How tribunals actually interpret 'all reasonable steps' in third-party cases will take time and decided cases to become clear. Anyone telling you confidently where the line sits is guessing. Northern Ireland has its own employment law and is not covered by this commencement.
Qurexa perspective
We employ delivery drivers, which puts us squarely inside this change rather than commenting on it from outside. Drivers knock on doors. Most interactions are fine, and a good number are the nicest part of the day. A small number are not, and the ones that are not have historically been treated as something you shrug off between drops. We think the 'all reasonable steps' wording is the right pressure, and we would rather say that than pretend the old standard was adequate. The practical work it creates is real: thinking about which rounds and which times carry risk, making sure a driver can report an incident without it being a nuisance to do so, and making sure something actually happens when they do. We are not holding ourselves up as an example here. It is new for us as well as everyone else.
Practical advice
If you are an employee in a public-facing job, here is what is worth knowing. Report things, and report them in writing. Email or a formal reporting system creates a record. A verbal mention to a supervisor often does not. If the duty is about whether your employer took steps, a written report is what establishes that they knew. Keep your own brief notes. Date, time, what happened, who was present. You do not need anything elaborate. Know that this applies to harassment linked to a protected characteristic. General rudeness from a customer is horrible but is not automatically covered by this particular duty. If you are in a union, this is exactly what to raise with your rep. Several unions campaigned for these provisions and will know how to use them. If you run or manage a business, the useful steps are not mysterious. Assess where public contact creates risk. Train staff and managers, and keep a record that you did. Make reporting easy and respond to reports. Put up clear notices that abuse of staff is not tolerated. Review it periodically rather than once. For individual legal advice, Acas offers free guidance and a helpline, and Citizens Advice can help. This article is not legal advice.
What to know
From 30 October 2026, employers in England, Wales and Scotland have a legal duty to take 'all reasonable steps' to prevent harassment of their staff by third parties such as customers, clients, suppliers and the public. The duty comes from sections 20 to 22 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, commenced by SI 2026/1065. The separate duty to prevent sexual harassment was strengthened on the same date from 'reasonable steps' to 'all reasonable steps'. The third-party duty covers harassment related to Equality Act protected characteristics, excluding pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership. Northern Ireland is not covered. Claims about uncapped compensation and a 25% uplift circulating online could not be verified and should not be relied on. How tribunals will interpret 'all reasonable steps' is not yet settled. Sources: Linklaters, 'Preparing for the new third-party harassment duty', August 2026, https://www.linklaters.com/insights/blogs/employmentlinks/2026/august/preparing-for-the-new-third-party-harassment-duty; CMS, 'Harassment law reform under the Employment Rights Act 2025: what employers need to know', 2026, https://cms.law/en/int/legal-updates/harassment-law-reform-under-the-employment-rights-act-2025-what-employers-need-to-know; Blacks Solicitors, 'Countdown to 30 October: Tougher harassment duties are almost here', October 2026, https://www.lawblacks.com/insight-hub/blog/countdown-to-30-october-tougher-harassment-duties-are-almost-here This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.
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