Your Customers Are a New Level of Liability

Most businesses understand that they have a responsibility to protect employees from sexual harassment by colleagues. From 30 October 2026, that responsibility will become considerably broader.

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers will be required to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work. The current duty, introduced in 2024, requires employers to take “reasonable steps”. The addition of one small word raises the standard expected of businesses and may make it harder to argue that a limited policy or occasional training session was sufficient.

Updated obligation

The changes will also introduce an obligation for employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties.

That could include customers, suppliers, contractors, partners, event attendees and other people who interact with employees during their work. For technology businesses, the risk is not confined to the office. It can arise at conferences, exhibitions, sales dinners, customer sites, networking events, online meetings and informal hospitality.

A salesperson subjected to inappropriate comments from an important customer cannot simply be expected to tolerate them because the individual is commercially valuable. An employee experiencing repeated behaviour from a contractor cannot be told that nothing can be done because the person works for another company.

Businesses will need to show that they considered these risks before an incident occurred.

Risk assessment

The exact steps required will depend on the organisation and the situations its employees face. However, preparation is likely to include a specific harassment risk assessment, clear reporting routes, appropriate management training and a policy that explicitly covers third parties and work-related events.

Businesses should also consider how complaints involving customers or partners will be handled. Who has the authority to challenge the behaviour, remove someone from an event, end a meeting or reconsider a commercial relationship? A policy carries little weight if employees believe revenue will always take priority when a complaint involves a major account.

Employment contracts, supplier terms, event codes of conduct and customer-facing procedures may all need to be reviewed. Records of training, risk assessments, complaints and the action taken will also be important if an employer later needs to demonstrate that it took every reasonable preventative step.

The new rules don't mean employers can control every person their employees encounter. They do mean that ignoring a foreseeable risk will become much more difficult to defend.

Prepare now!

Businesses have until 30 October 2026 to prepare. Waiting for the first complaint will be leaving it too late.

Further information is available here from Lawyers,  Shoosmiths