EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES - 15.06.2006

Idle talk costs money

Chitter, chatter

Unless you run a library, you probably wouldn’t expect your staff to maintain some sort of monastic vow of silence. In fact, staff tend to work better if they’re allowed to chat from time-to-time. But what if the chatting or fooling around goes a bit too far - at least in the eyes of one employee? Could it amount to discrimination or victimisation? And could you be liable for their unlawful actions? In law, the employer is vicariously liable for the actions of its staff - unless it has taken reasonably practicable steps to ensure that offensive action doesn’t occur in the first place.

Policy to the rescue

The usual way to make your position clear on behaviour that crosses the line is via an Equal Opportunities Policy (see The next step).

However, simply having a policy filed away in your personnel cupboard or stuck up on the staff notice board isn’t enough. For it to offer you any meaningful protection, you have to ensure that staff know and understand it. Here’s what can happen otherwise.

Durham do wrong

In a recently reported case, Durham City Council received a complaint from a male employee concerning the insensitive and homophobic conduct of his manager. As they failed to follow their own procedures and didn’t let the complainant know the outcome of his complaint, he duly resigned and claimed constructive dismissal. He also claimed that he’d suffered direct discrimination harassment on the grounds of his sexual orientation. He won his claims.

It Asda be

Asda was involved in a claim that one of its mangers made a racist remark. Asda satisfied the tribunal that they took equal opportunities very seriously - all managers had received awareness training, notices were regularly placed on boards reminding staff of their obligations and the subject was often mentioned during team briefings. For these reasons, the tribunal came to the conclusion they had taken reasonable steps to ensure that discriminatory behaviour wouldn’t occur.

How far to go?

Looking at the Asda case, it seems as though you have to go to quite some lengths to cover your back. Not really. Asda is a huge concern with almost limitless resources at its disposal. You can take an approach that’s commensurate with the size and make-up of your business.

Tip 1. If you don’t yet have an equal opportunities policy, now’s the time to introduce one. If you do, issue a note with next month’s payslips that says something along the lines of “I have read and understood the contents of the equal opportunities policy. I understand that a breach of it will lead to disciplinary proceedings.” Get them to sign and return it.

Tip 2. Pay close attention to any banter you hear in the workplace (ask supervisors to be your eyes and ears too). Act immediately if potentially offensive behaviour comes to light.

The next step

For a free sample equal opportunities visit http://personnel.indicator.co.uk (PS 08.12.03).