Third-party harassment protection to be repealed on 1 October 2013

The Government has released the the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Commencement No. 3, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2013 SI 2013/2227. This Order, among other things, brings into force s.65 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which amends s.40 of the Equality Act 2010 to remove protections for employees from third-party harassment. Section 40 will still apply to acts of third-party harassment which took place before 1 October 2013.

Further to this, employers will no longer be liable for the harassment of an employee by a third party (such as a customer, client or contractor) if the harassment occurred on two or more occasions and the employer knew of the harassment and took no steps to prevent it.