What Is Reasonable?

There’s no doubt that a relationship policy within your workplace is for the best, but you must get it right. Your policy must let people know where the boundaries are, but it must also be sensitive so you don’t sound like a dictator and lose your employees confidence.

Peter Talibart of Norton Rose says: “Some employees take the approach of simply banning all personal relationships between employers. This tactic is unlikely ever to succeed and will only encourage employees to keep such relationships secret. It’s also doubtful whether it id permissible under recent Human Rights legislation.”

Therefore you can’t have a rule stating that a married employee cannot have a relationship within the workplace or make an employee leave your business because of a relationship.

Mr Talibart advises that the best way is to seek advice on creating policy of conduct that gives guidelines spelling out how an employee should behave in this situation which can then be integrated into the company equal opportunities policy and staff handbook.

Everyone from your directors down should be included in the policy. But you should also take extra care to ensure all directors know what it means for them. Michael Burd of Lewis Silkin lawyers days: “for directors the consequence of breaching company guidelines are much more serious for the business than at the junior levels and you should stress that to them. Stories reported in the press are always more salacious ones involving directors.”

Minimising The Damage

Your policy needs to protect your company from the relationship while it is ongoing, but more importantly, from the fall-out should things end badly. There could potentially be serious legal issues involved if one employee in a position of power influences the career prospects of another, which is especially relevant to directors.

Your code should also define ‘inappropriate’ behaviour in the workplace. This can vary form company to company, but some will go so far as to say flirting in the workplace is unacceptable. Also consider friendly touching, displays of affection and obviously overt sexual behaviour.

How you will deal with relationships is more difficult. You can’t follow the US custom of ‘love contracts’. According to Mr Talibart: “These contracts usually set out that both parties enter into the relationship voluntarily, and that if the relationship breaks down, that both parties will follow the company’s formal complaints procedure and will behave reasonably towards eachother.

“In the UK such contracts are of little value given that you cannot force an employee to enter into one and that any subsequent action which a company take towards an employee who refuses to do so including dismissal or any form of victimisation is very likely to be deemed to be unfair.”

These contracts in the UK also don’t protect an employer from future sexual harassment claims at a later date.

What Do You Think?

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