Big decisions being faced by global business about whether to amend their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) approaches given the U.S. election result have dominated headlines recently.

But in the UK, a different set of questions are on the horizon for employers around how they go about upholding their workers’ rights when customers talk about issues such as transgender rights and religious beliefs on, or even off, their premises.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has warned that conversations amongst customers - such as in pubs or retail outlets - that are overheard by employees could contravene the rights of staff under proposed reforms

As The Times outlined this week though, controlling those conversations or expecting staff to ‘snoop’ on customers and report behaviour that contravenes the rules would raise huge questions around freedom of speech. It would also place a burden of responsibility on workers in what could be a legal minefield.

The EHRC said this was particularly challenging in cases involving a “philosophical belief”, such as people’s views on religion or women’s rights, because many business owners do not understand such topics are protected by equality law - whereas apply the new legislation to tackle behaviour like sexual harassment was far more straightforward.

The proposed changes have given rise to questions about how practical such rules would be to apply, for example in the case of bar staff being expected to determine whether private conversations between customers that happen within their earshot and are not directed at them would constitute a breach of the law.

It’s easy to also appreciate how customers would feel nervous - or some even emboldened - about expressing any personal views in such an environment, and the negative impact that could have in turn on both businesses and workers. There’s also the question of the prospective reputation impact of what a company’s employees could say when they go to the pub after work.

Putting the huge issue of whether large businesses stand firm, amend or drop DEI programmes to one side, the application of such changes to workers rights would bring many tricky questions for companies about freedom of speech, understanding of what would constitute a breach, protecting and increasing expectations on employees and the impact on trade, quite apart from alignment with their own policies and the real-life practicalities.

And while they will be keeping a close eye on what happens if the measures are brought in, a debate around - and the principle of - free speech may well become the dominant factor that all have to grapple with, regardless of the intention of legislators to give staff more protection.