Harassment under the Equal Status Act
If a customer or user of a service visitors a store, shop, bar etc. and for whatever reason an employee of the service provider decides to use obscene language, for example, towards a patron or visitor of the store, the visitor may have a cause of action against the business or service provider in question for the conduct of the employee.

If a customer or user of a service visitors a store, shop, bar etc. and for whatever reason an employee of the service provider decides to use obscene language, for example, towards a patron or visitor of the store, the visitor may have a cause of action against the business or service provider in question for the conduct of the employee.
What is Harassment ?.
Harassment is unwanted conduct being conduct that violates a person’s dignity and creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person which is based on one of the ten discriminatory grounds mentioned below.
S. 11 of the Equal Status Act states a person shall not sexually harass or harass (within the meaning of subsection (4) or (5)) another person (“the victim”) where the victim—
( a) avails or seeks to avail himself or herself of any service provided by the person or purchases or seeks to purchase any goods being disposed of by the person,
( b) is the proposed or actual recipient from the person of any premises or of any accommodation or services or amenities related to accommodation, or
( c) is a student at, has applied for admission to or avails or seeks to avail himself or herself of any service offered by, any educational establishment at which the person is in a position of authority.
The person who is responsible for the operation of any place that is an educational establishment or at which goods, services or accommodation facilities are offered to the public must not permit another person who has a right to be present in or to avail himself or herself of any facilities, goods or services provided at that place, to suffer harassment at that place.
There are 10 grounds of discrimination under the Equal Status Act which are:
- Gender
- Civil status
- Race/colour/nationality
- Family status
- Sexual orientation
- Age
- Membership of the travelling community
- Disability
- Housing assistance in relation to the provision of residential accommodation.
Notice obligations under the Equal Status Act 2000
If a visitor of business premises or a service provider is the recipient of harassment, they should at the earliest opportunity notify the business owner, or store manager of what happened. You should notify the in writing, which could be an email, of the nature of the issue.
There is a legal obligation on the complainant to do this, and not doing so will be relied upon as this defence in cases of this nature.
The obligation on the complainant is the following:
Before seeking redress under this section the complainant must within 2 months after the prohibited conducted is alleged to have occurred, or, where more than one incident of prohibited conduct is alleged to have occurred, within 2 months after the last such occurrence, notify the respondent in writing of the nature of the allegation.
Legal Action Time Limit
There is a time limit for taking legal action for claims of discrimination or harassment under the Equal Status Act.
A claim for redress in respect of prohibited conduct may not be referred under this section after the end of the period of 6 months from the date of the occurrence of the prohibited conduct or the date of the last occurrence.
Disclaimer
Please be advised that the above-mentioned material is intended as an overview and as a broad outline of the topic discussed. It should not be considered as complete and comprehensive legal advice, nor act as an appropriate substitute. Legal advice should be sought from a solicitor prior to relying on anything in this article.
Due care has been taken in the publication of this article and we do not accept legal liability as a result of reliance on any material covered in the above article.