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Reform and Tories 'insulting the public' by conflating pub banter with workplace harassment, TUC says
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch during her visit to Farleigh Hospice in Chelmsford, Essex, May 9, 2025

NIGEL FARAGE and Kemi Badenoch are insulting the public’s intelligence by conflating workplace harassment and abuse with pub banter, the TUC has said. 

The Reform UK and Conservative leaders have both claimed the measures under the Employment Rights Bill to protect workers from third-party harassment — such as abusive customers, patients and punters — will spell an end to pub banter.

Today the union federation published new polling that shows protecting workers from harassment is one of the most popular policies in the government Bill — second only to ending fire and rehire. 

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