Third-party harassment: a new employer liability from October 2026
- HRNews
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
What is it?
From October 2026 the Employment Rights Act 2025 raises the bar on workplace harassment. The current duty, in place since October 2024 under the Worker Protection Act 2023, requires employers to take "reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. Two things change from October 2026: the standard rises to "all reasonable steps," and employers become liable where their staff are harassed by third parties (customers, clients, suppliers, contractors, visitors) and they can't show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. That third-party liability covers harassment linked to any protected characteristic, not only sexual harassment.
What does it mean for you?
This is an anticipatory duty, so you're expected to act before anything happens rather than respond once a complaint lands. The Government has signalled that "all reasonable steps" will mean risk assessments, clear and accessible policies, and proper reporting and complaints procedures, with the EHRC's 8-step guide as the benchmark. Tribunals will look at whether those measures were actually put into practice, and whether training was regular and good quality, not just whether a policy exists on paper.
What it looks like will vary by setting. A customer-facing venue and a warehouse with contractors on site face the same duty but very different practical steps: clear signage and a right to refuse service in one, contractor inductions and site access rules in the other. One point in your favour: the Government has accepted that the steps you can reasonably take over third parties are more limited than those over your own staff, and tribunals will factor that in.
The exposure is significant. Harassment compensation under the Equality Act is uncapped, and a tribunal can add an uplift of up to 25% to the whole award where the duty is breached. The EHRC can also act on its own, through investigations, binding agreements and injunctions, without waiting for an individual claim. In 2025 Lidl GB entered a binding agreement with the EHRC after a tribunal found managers were unaware of the anti-harassment policies and no risk assessments had been done, which is exactly the reactive approach this duty is designed to end.
How Lansbury HR can help.
We can run the risk assessment, update your anti-harassment policy to cover third-party situations, set up clear reporting lines, and put role-appropriate training in place with managers as a priority. Then we keep the audit trail that supports an "all reasonable steps" defence if it's ever tested.
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