From 30 October 2026, if a customer harasses your staff, that is your legal problem.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 makes UK employers liable for harassment of their workers by third parties - customers, clients, delivery drivers, anyone they meet through work. The only defence: you took "all reasonable steps" to prevent it. If you run a pub, cafe, restaurant, shop or salon, your defence is a folder: policy, risk assessment, incident log, staff briefing. Build it in an afternoon.

Check what this means for you See the pack

Free check: two questions

From the official business.gov.uk and Acas guidance. Nothing you pick leaves this page.

Do your staff deal with people who don't work for you? Do you already have a written third-party harassment policy, incident log and staff briefing?

Pick both to see where you probably stand.

Sources: business.gov.uk: sexual harassment and third-party harassment, Acas: harassment law changes.

What "all reasonable steps" looks like for a small venue

Step Acas lists	What it means in a pub, cafe or shop
A policy covering third-party harassment	One page saying you don't permit customers to harass staff, what staff do, and what happens to customers who cross the line
Training workers	A 20-minute briefing: the law, what to do in the moment, how to report - plus manager scripts for warning, removing and barring
Telling customers the consequences	A counter poster and one line in your booking terms: harassment means no service
Incident tracking and reporting	A simple log: every incident, what was done, when a second strike means a ban

Acas: "taking all reasonable steps means doing what is possible with the available resources" - and it recommends recording why steps you skipped were not reasonable for your business. The pack includes that record sheet too.

The Customer Harassment Duty Pack

Plain-English guide: the 30 October 2026 changes, the third-party duty, the "all reasonable steps" standard, and the 6-month tribunal time limits live since 1 October 2026.
Third-party harassment policy template - one page, ready to adapt.
Risk assessment worksheet: bar, tables, deliveries, phones, lone working, events - the contact points inspectors and tribunals expect you to have thought about.
Incident log (Excel) plus the "steps we considered" review record Acas recommends.
Customer-facing wording: poster text, booking-terms line, refusal-of-service procedure.
Manager scripts: first warning, asking someone to leave, the banning letter, and what to say to the worker afterwards.

What it is not: templates and checklists, not legal advice. The pack does not guarantee compliance; always follow the current official guidance linked inside.

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Questions

We're a two-person cafe. Does this really apply to us? Yes - the duty covers every employer. "All reasonable steps" scales with your resources, so a small venue is not expected to buy bodycams. But doing nothing is not an option, and Acas's own example of failing the duty is a small shop whose owner told staff abuse was "part of the job".

Does this cover racist abuse from customers, or only sexual harassment? The third-party duty covers all harassment types under the Equality Act 2010 - sexual harassment and harassment related to a protected characteristic (except pregnancy/maternity and marriage/civil partnership). The sexual-harassment preventive duty separately rises to "all reasonable steps" on the same day.

Is this legal advice? No. It is a template and checklist pack built from business.gov.uk, Acas and EHRC-linked guidance. Confirm your position against the official sources or with a qualified adviser.