Employment Rights: protection from harassment

The Employment Rights Bill includes measures requiring employers to protect workers from harassment by customers and other third parties. Hold Sway’s polling for the TUC tested the popularity of this measure, and found it is supported by 79% of the population, with only 14% against it.

This hasn’t stopped opposition parties from trying to frame the harassment measure as a crackdown on pub banter, attempting to argue that an overheard conversation about a controversial topic in a pub could lead to litigation. It’s surprising to me that they are pursuing this line of argument, not just because of the poll finding but also because we looked at it in focus groups. When talking to a group who’d voted Labour in 2024 but are now considering Reform, I read out lines on “pub banter” that Nigel Farage had used on GB News. The voters found it perplexing that anyone would interpret the Bill in that way, and the argument in no way dampened their support for it.

The poll findings, with commentary from the TUC and me, were covered by the Daily Mirror on 12th May, here.

You can download data tables on this poll question here.