Workplace Harassment Law Changes 2026: What Customer-Facing Employers Need to Know

What workplace harassment laws are changing in October 2026?

Employers already have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work.

From 30 October 2026, that duty becomes stronger. Employers will need to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

The change means businesses need to look at the risks their employees face and take the preventative steps that are reasonable for their organisation.

The law will also strengthen protection from third-party harassment.

A third party is someone your employee deals with through work who isn’t their employer or another employee. This could include:

• customers
• clients
• contractors
• suppliers
• service users
• people attending events
• members of the public

Are employers responsible for harassment from customers?

This is one of the more important changes for customer-facing businesses.

From October 2026, employers could be liable for harassment of an employee by a third party if they haven’t taken all reasonable steps to prevent it.

That makes customer harassment of staff something employers need to think about before an incident happens.

For example, this could include unwanted sexual comments towards a member of bar staff, discriminatory abuse aimed at a retail employee or repeated inappropriate behaviour towards someone working at an event.

Businesses can’t control everything a customer does. But they can think about where the risks are and what reasonable steps they can take to protect their team.

What does "all reasonable steps" mean for employers?

There isn’t one set checklist that every employer has to follow.

What’s reasonable will depend on your business, the work your employees do and the risks they’re likely to encounter.

Some practical steps could include:

• assessing where harassment could happen
• having a clear workplace harassment policy
• giving employees an easy way to report concerns
• making sure managers know how to respond
• keeping appropriate records of incidents
• setting expectations for customer behaviour
• providing relevant staff training
• reviewing your procedures when risks or circumstances change

A hotel, pub or restaurant with employees dealing with the public late at night may need different measures from a small office with very little customer contact.

The important point is to think about the risks in your workplace rather than relying on a generic policy.

Do employers need to provide sexual harassment training?

There isn’t a rule saying every employer must provide one particular sexual harassment training course.

However, training can be an important part of the reasonable steps an employer takes to prevent harassment.

Policies are useful, but employees also need to understand what inappropriate behaviour looks like in practice.

They should know:

• what behaviour may amount to harassment
• what to do if they experience it
• how to report a concern
• how to support a colleague
• what they can safely do if they witness inappropriate behaviour

Training shouldn’t be treated as a box-ticking exercise. It should give employees something useful they can apply in real situations.

How can Active Bystander Training help?

An active bystander is someone who notices inappropriate behaviour and chooses to respond in a safe and appropriate way.

That doesn’t mean employees are expected to confront an aggressive customer or put themselves at risk.

There are different ways to respond.

Our Active Bystander Trainingcovers the Five Ds of intervention:

• Direct – address the behaviour calmly when it’s safe to do so
• Distract – interrupt the situation or change the focus
• Delegate – involve a manager, security colleague or somebody else who can help
• Delay – check on the person afterwards and offer support
• Document – make an appropriate factual record of what happened

Sometimes speaking up is appropriate. In another situation, getting a manager may be the safer option. Sometimes the most useful thing someone can do is check on their colleague afterwards and make sure the incident is reported.

Giving employees those options can make it easier to know what to do when something doesn’t feel right.

What should employers do before October 2026?

You don’t necessarily need to create lots of new policies or complicated processes.

A sensible place to start is by looking at what you already have.

Ask yourself:

• Where could harassment happen in our workplace?
• Do any roles have a greater risk of harassment from customers?
• Do employees know what behaviour isn’t acceptable?
• Do they know what to do if a customer harasses them?
• Is it easy to report a concern?
• Do managers know how to respond?
• Is our staff training relevant and up to date?
• Have we considered practical ways to reduce the risks we’ve identified?

If the answer to some of those is no, you’ve got a useful starting point.

Active Bystander Training for your team

Our Active Bystander Training course helps employees recognise and respond to inappropriate behaviour at work.

It covers harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and victimisation, as well as relevant UK workplace law, supporting colleagues, reporting concerns and the Five Ds of intervention.

It’s designed to give employees practical options when they see something that isn’t right, without expecting them to confront difficult situations or put themselves at risk.