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Sexual harassment from customers, clients, or service users: what are your options?
Third party harassment is a form of harassment (related to a protected characteristic) carried out by someone you encounter at work but who does not work for your employer - for example a customer, client or service user.
A hotel guest asking a member of staff sexual questions. A service user touching a carer inappropriately. A client sending inappropriate sexual texts to a therapist. These are all examples of sexual harassment from a third party.
In their Turning Tables report, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that the most common perpetrators of sexual harassment at work are senior colleagues, such as managers. However, a quarter of those who responded to their survey on workplace harassment noted that they had experienced third party harassment.
What protection is available for people who’ve experienced sexual harassment at work from a third party?
If you are sexually harassed at work by someone who works for your employer, you can raise an action against the perpetrator and/or your employer in an employment tribunal. There is currently no specific legal protection for people experiencing harassment from third parties. As a result, the options available if you experience third party harassment are more limited, but your employers should still take action.
What should employers do if you’ve experienced sexual harassment from a third party?
Employers should still take reasonable steps to prevent harassment by third parties. If they fail to prevent or respond to third party harassment, employers could be held liable under other sections of The Equality Act 2010, e.g. for indirect or direct discrimination. Additionally, employers have a duty to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of their staff so may also be liable under health and safety laws.
Why should third-party harassment protections be reinstated?
As highlighted in the EHRC Turning Tables report, many people experiencing sexual harassment by customers felt that they had no option but to put up with the behaviour if they wanted to continue their employment. No one should ever feel forced to ‘put up with’ or ‘deal with’ sexual harassment from third parties at work and it should never be considered ‘part of the job’.
In 2013, the UK Government removed the specific legal protection from third party harassment in the Equality Act. Since then, campaigners and activists across the UK have been calling on the UK Government to reintroduce these protections. In July last year, as part of a UK Government strategy to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), the UK Government announced their intention to reinstate protection against harassment from third parties.
We welcomed this announcement as the current gap in protection is unacceptable. We believe that anyone experiencing sexual harassment at work, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a colleague, customer, service user, or client, should be protected from sexual harassment at work.
How can we help?
If you have experienced harassment at work from a third party, our specialist sexual harassment solicitor can provide you with information and advice. You can book a surgery appointment with our sexual harassment solicitor using our new online booking system or call our helpline to request an appointment.
Jargon Buster:
- Protected Characteristics – Under the Equality Act 2010, specific aspects of a person's identity are legally protected from discrimination. These are race, gender reassignment, sex, age, disability, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.
- Indirect discrimination – When a practice, policy or rule which applies to everyone in the same way disadvantages a person or group of people who share the same protected characteristic.
- Direct discrimination - When you are treated differently and worse than someone else because of a protected characteristic. This could be your own protected characteristic but it is also direct discrimination if someone treats you worse than another person because they think you have a certain protected characteristic, or because of your association with someone with a protected characteristic.