Last year, the Free Speech Union led the charge against the Worker Protection Bill, a private members’ bill that would have extended employers’ liability for harassment of their employees to third parties, i.e., members of the public. Among other things, it would have meant the owners of pubs, bars and restaurant having to employ ‘banter cops’ to police their customers lest a member of staff overhear a conversation that upsets them. In effect, the Bill would have turbo-charged the Equality Act, imposing eye-watering compliance costs on owners of hospitality businesses and having a chilling effect on free speech. We succeeded up to a point and the Worker Protection Act, when it eventually received Royal Assent, only extended employers’ liability to third party sexual harassment, not any other form.
But the clauses the FSU succeeded in getting stripped out of the Worker Protection Bill have reappeared in Labour’s Employment Rights Bill. Camilla Turner in the Telegraph has the story.
Pub landlords will be turned into ‘banter cops’ under reforms to workers’ rights, business leaders have warned.
Provisions in the Employment Rights Bill mean equality laws will be updated to make employers liable for staff being offended by “third parties”, such as customers or members of the public.
The laws would introduce a legal requirement for companies and public bodies to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent harassment by third parties relating to a “protected characteristic” such as sex, gender reassignment or age.
Free speech campaigners have warned that this measure is the government’s “latest salvo in its ongoing war against free speech” and will lead to pub staff having to act as the “banter cops” who ban customers for telling “inappropriate” jokes.
Scholars also fear the legislation will also have a “chilling effect” on academic freedom as it will mean university authorities are more likely to give into calls to “no-platform” contentious guest speakers for fear of being sued.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said that staff in restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels are working in a “social environment” where “there are jokes and people are boisterous”.
She said while everyone wants to make sure their staff are protected “we don’t want to be policing our customers’ behaviour”, adding that she is keen to work with ministers to ensure “undue restrictions” are not imposed on customers. […]
The proposed laws, which were unveiled last week, as part of an overhaul of workers’ rights, will lead to a major expansion of the New Labour-era Equality Act.
The changes go significantly further than a measure in the original Equality Act of 2010, which made employers liable for third-party harassment after three separate incidents – known as the “three strikes rule”. The third-party provisions were stripped out of the legislation altogether by the coalition government in 2013.
James Murray, legal director at the law firm Doyle Clayton, said the changes announced could lead to controversial guest speakers being barred from events.
He explained: “If we think about a speaker that has been invited – say it’s a controversial gender critical speaker, like Julie Bindel or Kathleen Stock – someone might somewhat disingenuously say ‘I am an employee of this university and I find what she says deeply harassing’.
“The concern is that this will shift the balance away from free speech and universities will be more risk averse as they won’t want to be held liable for third-party harassment.”
Prof James Tooley, vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, said the Bill is “deeply worrying” and “very dangerous” for free speech on campus.
“I want to be free as vice-chancellor to be able to invite people with a whole range of views – that’s what university should be about – hearing views and being challenged,” he said.
“At the moment, I am able to stand firm and say they are coming. But if this new Bill comes in, then it is the end of my vice-chancellor speaker series.
“Given that the government has already removed other protections for free speech at universities, this is sending out a worrying message.”
Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said the proposed extension to harassment laws amounted to a “snowflakes’ charter”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: For those that cannot get past the Telegraph paywall, the Mail has also covered the story.
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