The People Bulletin

In a landmark case, one R. Reindeer was successful in a claim of discrimination on grounds of ethnicity. Presiding at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the judge pronounced: ‘…under the Equality Act it is inappropriate for persons to make comment with regard to the ruddiness of any part of Mr. R. Reindeer. Further to this, we find the exclusion of Mr R. Reindeer from the Reindeer Games discriminatory and full compensation for injury to feelings and loss of earnings must be paid.’

While The People Bulletin is grateful to Tony Miles for this particular piece of nonsense, the festive season has been known to trip up a number of employers. In a review of the good, bad and the ugly, the following set of suggested guidance has emerged (but for those of you who have already had your Christmas parties, it may all be too late).

1. Benefits in kind. The exemption for company entertainment before HMRC would regard a corporate social function as a benefit in kind (which would attract tax and NI) is £150 per person per annum. For example, a summer party and a Christmas one cannot add up to more than £150 a head including VAT. For further guidance see HMRC’s guidance EIM21690 – Particular benefits: annual parties and other social functions.
2. Promises at the Christmas party. These can go horribly wrong if employers are not on their guard, as a leisure company found out in 2005. Croner Consulting (part of Wolters Kluwer UK) share the following cautionary tale:

   The case of Judge v Crown Leisure Ltd [2005] IRLR 823 concerned a promise of a pay increase made at the firm’s Christmas party. Thomas Judge was employed as one of three special operations managers by Crown Leisure. Another special operations manager was recruited in June 2001 on a higher salary than the other three existing staff. At the time they were told that all managers’ salaries would be brought into line ‘in due course’.

   At the Christmas party that same year, held in a Blackpool hotel for employees and their partners, Mr Judge alleged that he had been told by the special operations director that he would be put on the same salary as the new recruit within two years. The director denied that the conversation had ever taken place and that he would never have entered into a contractual discussion at a social event where alcohol was being consumed. It was found that the original statement made in June 2001 (when the new employee was recruited) to achieve parity ‘in due course’ was too vague to amount to a binding contractual promise and that the conversation at the company’s Christmas party did not amount to a contractual promise either.

   In order for there to be a legally binding and enforceable contract there has to be certainty. To use some of the wording from the original judgement; the casual conversation which may have occurred ‘in the convivial spirit of the evening’ was to reassure and comfort Mr Judge and not a legally binding contractual commitment.

3. Party policies. It can be pretty galling for an employer who has gone to the trouble to put on a Christmas party, despite the recession, to inadvertently attract any form of litigation from aggrieved employees. According to Pinsent Mason, the best form of protection is a written policy. This should spell out what the acceptable standards of social behaviour are at work-related social events and what disciplinary action could follow if any of these rules are breached. ‘Make it clear that fighting, excessive alcohol consumption, use of illegal drugs, inappropriate behaviour, sexist or racist remarks, and comments about sexual orientation, disability, age or religion will not be tolerated’, they advise. This might seem a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but could end up being a small price to pay. For a copy of their I’m Dreaming of a… ..Trouble-Free Office Christmas Party, click here.
4. Christmas decorations in the workplace. Contrary to some urban myths, there is no HSE guidance about Christmas decorations, to the extent the following item on their website back in 2007 was put up to debunk a suggestion that they were not allowable. www.hse.gov.uk/myth/nov07.htm.  As ACAS puts it: ‘As long as you assess the risk properly for where the decorations will be and how you put them up, especially if they could pose fire hazards, health and safety rules will not normally be breached.’
5. De-mob ‘happiness’.  Kevin Friory of Right Management’s Corecare centre reminds us that Christmas is a busy season for HR professionals as they are faced with the challenges of resource pressure as annual leave is being used up, and may be having to deal with increased unauthorised absence. He explains: ‘The attention of the workforce is beginning to shift towards non-work issues yet the business is often demanding more effort and energy as the year-end figures approach. The potential for a clash between work and home is never greater than at Christmas.’ A useful summary of ‘The 12 Challenges of Christmas’ is available from the employment assistance programme company here.
6. Christmas message. Assuming you have survived the secret Santas, avoided accidents involving Christmas decorations, and managed to suppress embarrassing post party photos appearing being whizzed around the office email, it is important not to lose sight of the opportunity to wish staff the compliments of the season. Gareth Chick of Spring Partnerships goes a bit further. He told The People Bulletin:‘Letting your team disappear without a pre-Christmas pep talk could be a very costly mistake…Managers must try and give staff a psychological boost before they leave the office for Christmas, or they might come back in the New Year with their head screwed on the wrong way. Managers often underestimate how important the Christmas period is to people psychologically.‘Get your message right, and they’ll go home feeling incredibly positive about their company; get it wrong, and they might spend the holiday contemplating why their workplace isn’t what it used to be…The failure to give a positive message might encourage staff to make a new year’s resolution to seek pastures new in January (admittedly easier said than done at the moment) – and even if they don’t take action, they’ll still bring a bucket-load of this negative energy back to the office with us.‘On the other hand, if they go away feeling great about the company and the people in charge, they’re more likely to be positive and make resolutions about going back into the company and making it great again.’

We think he has a point. Merry Christmas!