As part of its on-going overhaul of employment legislation, the Government has changed the law in relation to third party harassment. What it means is that from 1 October 2013, an employer can no longer be automatically liable for harassment of a worker by a third party. However, you must still be fully aware of issues that can arise between your company’ customers, suppliers and your employees, and as an employer you can’t afford to relax, ignore the problem and its implications,
Any complaint from a member of staff about harassment by a third party reported to you needs to be quickly investigated, and immediate steps put in place to prevent it happening again. As an employer there are still general anti-harassment provisions which you are required to comply with and a failure to act could still lead to you being liable for the third party’s actions. General failure to prevent any harassment in the workplace could also lead to constructive dismissal complaints from staff, which could prove embarrassing and expensive to the business.
