New Harassment Laws Will ‘Turn Business Owners into Banter Police’

I wrote to Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, on Friday to alert her to the dangers of the Worker Protection Bill and ask her to press the pause button on this momentous piece of legislation that has received very little scrutiny. The Telegraph has the story.

New laws will turn restaurant owners, hoteliers and pub landlords into “banter police”, ministers have been warned.

The Government is introducing new legislation aimed at protecting employees from harassment in the workplace.

But critics fear the change will have far-reaching consequences for free speech and will lead to employers having a “legitimate legal interest in policing what members of the public say”.

An amendment to the Equality Act, backed by ministers, will make employers liable for third-party harassment – meaning from members of the public, as well as from their fellow staff members.

Under clause one of the Bill, employers will be required to take “all reasonable steps” to protect their employees from harassment of any kind, and failure to do so will leave them vulnerable to being sued by their employees in the Employment Tribunal.

Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, has written to Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, to urge her to change course.

He said: “The Equality Act has poisoned the atmosphere in workplaces up and down the country.

“Why on earth is a Conservative Government extending the scope of the Equality Act, so when we’re in pubs, bars, restaurants, nightclubs and sports grounds we’ll have to constantly be looking over our shoulders to make sure we’re not being overheard by the banter police? This is the opposite of the ‘war on woke’.

“It’s extending the writ of the woke thought police to every nook and cranny of British society.”

He explained that under the new laws, a member of staff in a pub who is offended by “overhearing some banter between customers” could bring a case for “unwanted conduct” under the Equality Act.

In a letter to Ms Badenoch, he said that “consequently, publicans will have to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to protect their employees from ‘harassment’ of this type, from sticking up notices saying ‘No Banter’, to employing bouncers to police customers’ conversations. These are additional costs that will push many pubs into liquidation”.

Recent research found that corporate culture wars are making the public “hostile” and that Britons are “cynical” and “tired” of attempts by big business to force political views on employees and customers.

Ms Badenoch declined to comment.

The Free Speech Union will be publishing its briefing about the Worker Protection Bill shortly.

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nickbowes

3 years ago

Toby thank you for the great work you are doing. It just seems these endless papers that state the obvious don`t get anywhere with the lying criminals in Government/sage who are set on only one agenda.

The autumn/winter already looks set to be bleak and i and others will be faced with forced medical procedures to ensure that food continues to get on the family table.

These vaccines might kill people, at some point, in biblical numbers and most seem fine with that. Where is the opposition to this ?

steve_z

Reply to nickbowes

“These vaccines might kill people, at some point, in biblical numbers”

They probably won’t – but the issue is nobody knows because we only have short term data.

Lots of vaccines/drugs are withdrawn as it becomes clear what the side-effects are.

The idea of injecting the whole world with novel vaccines with no long term safety data seems insane to me – even if we ‘get away with it’ this time.

-1

iane

Reply to steve_z

Actually, given that the spike protein is now known to be a toxin with many unpleasant effects in the human body, I suspect that you are wrong and that there will be many deaths and other serious medical consequences over the next few years. For the young who foolishly allow PHE to play God with their bodies there will probably be a mass of serious consequences over decades.

Lockdown Sceptic

the lancet has long lost all credibility

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Rowan

Forced and coerced medical procedures are meant to kill us. We need to be prepared to die, but we must each make sure that we each take at least one medical enforcer with us.

Last edited 3 years ago by Rowan

imp66

Surely the “authorities” wouldn’t exaggerate ” facts” to scare the living daylights out of the weak-minded? Surely? Or…

Tyrants We’re At War.
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