Labour’s Employment Rights Bill could threaten free speech in Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned.
The watchdog has raised concerns about new rules requiring companies to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent harassment of staff by third parties.
In a briefing to peers, the EHRC cautioned that these measures are too broad-brush and could lead to “excessive limitations on debate”.
The EHRC urged Parliament to weigh-up the “complexities” of Angela Rayner’s bill to ensure that free speech “is not subject to disproportionate interference”.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill could threaten free speech in Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned
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Critics have suggested the legislation could allow people to “sue for hurt feelings”.
Lord Strathcarron – chairman of Unicorn Publishing Group – warned of a chilling effect on free speech.
He questioned whether Waterstones would “risk arranging another book signing by JK Rowling” if employees could “sue for hurt feelings, real or vexatious”.
Lord Young of Acton, who co-founded the Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph: “How will publicans be expected to protect their employees from overhearing conversations in pubs by customers that they may find offensive or upsetting?
“When it was suggested [in the House of Commons] that pubs might have to employ ‘banter bouncers’ as one of the reasonable steps to protect employees, it was met with derisive, dismissive laughter by the government benches as a ludicrous straw man, but I don’t think it is a straw man.
“Publicans will have to take legal advice on how to limit their liability.”
