Christmas parties and staff problems

Andrew Lightburn (left) employment lawyer at Shulmans solicitors, offers his advice on an all too common problem arising from a Christmas party.

An HR Manager from Leeds posed the following question:

"Our company held our Christmas party at a local hotel. At the party, a manager made 'advances of an amorous nature' towards his secretary, which she rejected. The secretary has now e-mailed me in confidence to say that she is unhappy with the behaviour of her manager at the party and that he is now ignoring her and excluding her from team social activities, such as going out for lunch or drinks after work.  What should I do?"

Andrew replies:

You should be aware that incidents that occur at official company events, such as your Christmas party, will be considered as being work related incidents. In addition, the e-mail from the secretary is a grievance, whether or not it is labelled as such. Your company will therefore need to ensure that the requirements of the statutory grievance procedure are followed in terms of holding a meeting and providing a right of appeal.

The behaviour of the manager both at the party and afterwards, in terms of exclusion in the workplace, is sexual harassment.

You should therefore treat this as having received a grievance for sexual harassment and instigate the grievance procedure. You should also observe any specific procedures under your own company’s equal opportunities policy. Given the nature of this complaint it should be dealt with in confidence, although investigations will naturally require other employees to give statements as to what they saw.

It would be advisable to separate the manager and secretary at work. Where possible it should be the alleged harasser who is moved and not the victim as this could lead to a further claim of victimisation. If the allegations of harassment are particularly serious then it may be appropriate to suspend the manager pending the outcome of the investigation. However, you should have sufficient evidence to suggest that there may be truth in the allegations before you do this.

A grievance meeting should be held with the secretary following the completion of the investigation. If there is evidence of inappropriate behaviour by the manager then disciplinary action should be taken against him. Whilst in many cases, employers are reluctant to get involved in matters that occur between drunken employees outside of work, a failure in this instance to take appropriate action could leave your business open to a serious sexual harassment claim. The disciplinary sanction should also be severe enough to recognise the gravity of the offence.

It is relatively common in these cases for alleged harassers to be given a relatively minor warning to reflect the fact that employees were drunk and it was outside work. However, a failure to discipline properly could give grounds for the secretary to resign as constructively dismissed.

News date 5th February2007