New sex discrimination laws in UK could see barmaids, waitresses and other hospitality workers allowed to take customers before a tribunal for as little as calling them "love".

It could also see those bars that enforce them lose money as customers flock to other venues whose staff, rightly or wrongly, are less concerned about what they're called.

But while the much-needed update to protect the undervalued, underpaid and often over-tolerant bar persons and waiters of this world seems like a step in the right direction, it is also addressing the issue in a potentially counterproductive way.

Students will be the first to tell you of the pains of the hospitality industry. Many struggle to find a decent part time job, traipsing around job centres. Finally, exhausted by the job search, they resort to reluctantly prodding already inundated bar managers with well-written yet sparsely decorated CVs that would make Paris Hilton blush in the hope of some joy.

Jumping eagerly at the opportunity, many naïve students, particularly women, are unaware that their endurance, patience and morals will be tested to the extreme.

Unable to find a job as a replacement, many feel forced to endure the tirade of drunk-fuelled and lewd comments thrown at them from all corners.

But new powers enabling these workers to sue if no action is taken by superiors, for anything from a loud sexist joke to the often innocuous use of "love" or "darling" by customers, opens a legal can of worms that leaves more questions than answers.

As comedian Phil Jupitus explained on the BBC's The One Show, how can this be enforced at the best of times, with slurring drunks often unable to say there own names let alone successfully defend their drunkard behaviour to a tribunal in the case of false claims.

More importantly, what about the potential confusion in bars and clubs where music blearing out of speakers makes the most lecherous comment sound like a drink order and vice versa? Someone could easily find themselves in a lot of trouble for ordering Sex on the Beach in Brighton, that's for sure.

Never Mind the Buzzcock's comedian Jupitus, who grew up in a pub, could also find satirical jokes from his repertoire banned by owners of clubs for fear of reprisal.

Sadly, as well intentioned as the new laws are, their application in a majority of cases could be at best inaccurately applied and at worst, completely unworkable.