News | Christmas fun and frolics - are you liable?
So we have turned back the clocks and there are only 6 weeks to Christmas. Party season is upon us. For employers however, the morning after headache can be due to more than the champagne the night before.
Party night antics – particularly where alcohol is involved – can lead employers into hot water and they can be held indirectly responsible for employees’ actions, including harassment, bullying and fighting. Drinking and driving must be discouraged – perhaps providing transport after a Christmas party – and staff should be made aware of the consequences of being late the day after the party – an ever present dilemma.
Most employers allow Christmas office decorations, but should remember they are responsible for health and safety and make sure that electrics are safe, wires out of the way and there is no fire hazard with tinsel near lights!
All precautions taken, everyone is looking forward to happy festive period . So who would have thought all could be spoiled by gossip? In the case of Nixon v Ross Coates Solicitors and another, Ms Nixon was seen "flirtatiously kissing" the IT manager at the Christmas party - and then sharing a hotel room with him. She later discovered she was pregnant (the father being a solicitor at the firm). She told the managing partner, who advised the HR manager – who spread the gossip, encouraging speculation as to the identity of the father. Raising a grievance, Ms Nixon requested a temporary transfer as she was uncomfortable in the current environment. It was refused and her pay was frozen during the investigation. Ms Nixon then resigned as the grievance was not dealt with, claiming constructive unfair dismissal and sex and pregnancy related discrimination.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) decided that the gossip was connected with Nixon's pregnancy, it constituted a course of unwanted conduct and amounted to sex and pregnancy related discrimination and harassment, as did the refusal to allow the transfer. It also found that she was constructively dismissed when her employer failed to deal with her grievance and insisted that she return to a workplace with an "unfavourable atmosphere" and that the original tribunal’s decision to reduce the compensatory award by 90% because "she acted irresponsibly at the Christmas party" and was the "author of her own misfortune" was wrong.
Employers should remember that they have a responsibility to deal with grievances properly and should make sure that the work place is fair for all, at all times – even if that means stemming ‘simple’ office gossip!
