Member

No carve-outs are needed for the hospitality sector because it is experienced in dealing with incidents of harassment carried out by customers and making judgement calls about appropriate steps to take—for example, how to handle customers who are racist when drunk. I reiterate that this clause is about harassment and not banter. The definition of harassment means significantly more than conduct that leads to the taking of offence in order for it to be unlawful. Conduct that is trivial or causes minor offence will not be sufficiently serious to meet the definition of harassment. To meet this test, it is not enough for the claimant to simply feel that someone’s conduct is offensive. Where the speaker had not intended to create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment, the tribunal must consider whether it was reasonable for conduct to have had that effect. This is an objective test, in which the reasonableness and the facts of the individual situation must always be considered.