The Equality Act 2010, due to come into force on 1 October, will enable staff to seek damages from employers who fail to take reasonable steps to protect them from any form of discrimination by a third party such as a customer.

Speaking to HR Director magazine, Jon Taylor, head of employment at commercial law firm EMW Picton Howell explains that this is a dramatic extension of a law introduced in 2008 by Harriet Harman that meant employers could be liable if their staff encountered discrimination on the grounds of sex. The new law will cover discrimination on the basis of race, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation as well.

"This could cause real problems for employers in pubs, bars and restaurants where behaviour from clients can sometimes be pretty poor," he said. "What a customer thinks is friendly banter a staff member could easily consider discrimination.

"Public transport, the NHS, local authorities and the social housing sector can also be flashpoints where customer anger can lead to abuse of and discrimination against staff. The legislation could present real problems as it can be seen as expecting employers to exert quite a high level of control over their customers' behaviour.

"Smaller businesses, in particular, may find it harder to cope. When new classes of discrimination are banned in the workplace it takes a couple of years for claims to feed through and to cause a real problem for employers - we expect this legislation to follow a similar trend."

Taylor added that there is no limit on damage awards against employers for discrimination claims. Damages could include loss of earnings and injury to feelings.

Those awards alone can to run to several thousand pounds with awards in the most serious cases getting up towards £30,000, meaning companies will have to take the matter seriously.

EMW Picton Howell points out that there only need to be three instances of discrimination - and this can be from a different customer on each occasion - before a member of staff can launch a claim against their employer.