What is and What is not acceptable behaviour in workplace
Carol Thatcher’s TV presenting career is in jeopardy after she allegedly referred to a tennis player as a ‘golliwog’ backstage during filming of the BBC One programme. This has caused much debate over whether this was intended as an innocent joke or a racist comment. Either way, it raises the question of what is and what is not acceptable behaviour in the workplace.
Businesses tend to function most effectively when there are relatively harmonious working relationships between employees; there is a very fine line between imposing strict behavioural rules to suppressing employees’ individual characters. However, personality clashes, cultural differences or even a different sense of humour, can cause a complete breakdown in working relationships and result in emotional turmoil for the individuals as well as affect the running of a business. What is simply a joke to one person, can be highly offensive to another.
Unfortunately in this type of situation, the employer is generally liable for the behaviour of their employees to other employees. This means that if an employee sexually harasses or racially abuses another employee, the employer will be responsible. The claim for sex or race discrimination will be made against the business whether or not the employer approved of the discriminatory behaviour or even knew about it.
The only way of defending such a claim is for the business to show it took reasonable steps to prevent the discrimination occurring - this relates to policy measures that were in place prior to the incident. As a minimum standard, the Employment Tribunal require that the employer has adopted an equal opportunities policy and, in practice, has applied this policy. If the employer can show that there is an enforced rigorous equal opportunities policy that has been clearly communicated to all employees, they can escape liability for acts of discrimination carried out by one employee against another employee. In practical terms, this will often mean that employers can escape responsibility (and substantial compensation) for sexual, racial or other forms of harassment.
It is important to appreciate that it is not enough simply for an employer to adopt a formal equal opportunities policy. The policy needs to be carefully drafted and relevant to the organisation, it needs to be communicated to all employees in an appropriate way and managers need to receive some training on the implementation of the policy.
February 2009
This article gives a general overview only and the legal position at the time of writing this article. It cannot be relied upon in any particular case. Specific legal advice must always be considered to include consideration as to whether the legal position contained in this article has changed since going to print. For further information and advice, please contact Paul Archer or Lauren Harkin on 01793 527141 or alternatively by email on Paul.Archer@lemon-co.co.uk or Lauren.Harkin@lemon-co.co.uk
If you would like to receive more information from Lemon&Co and be kept up to date with legal and statutory updates please register here.
Link to this article:
If you wish to link to this article, please paste the follwoing code into your web page:
<p><strong><a href="http://www.lemon-co.co.uk/article_acceptable-behaviour.php">What is and What is not acceptable behaviour in workplace</a></strong><br />
Carol Thatcher’s TV presenting career is in jeopardy after she allegedly referred to a tennis player as a ‘golliwog’ backstage during filming of the BBC One programme....</p>
Download our core services brochure
- click here - PDF format (275kb)