Legal News | 19.06.18
Is your business ready for the World Cup fever?
The 2018 FIFA World Cup football tournament in Russia has kicked off.
The Word Cup fever should not be regarded by your business as a negative. You should embrace this opportunity to boost staff morale and consequently maximise your employees’ engagement and productively in your business.
Not all your employees will be interested in the tournament, but have you thought about how your business is going to deal with employment related issues that may arise during the four week tournament. For example:-
Requests for time off and/or flexible working
You may receive an increase in the number of requests from your employees for time off during the four week tournament. You should ensure that all requests for time off and/or to work flexibly are treated fairly. For example, you should be consistent when authorising annual leave requests, unpaid leave and/or flexible working. If you grant your English national employees annual leave, unpaid leave and/or flexible working to support their national team then you must also treat your non English national employees the same when dealing with their requests. Likewise if you grant your male employees annual leave, unpaid leave and/or flexible working to support their national team you must treat the requests made by your female employees the same.
Lateness and absenteeism
You will need to make sure you are prepared for dealing with a potential increase in the number of one-off employee sickness absences. You should ensure that your sickness absence procedures are in place so that you can monitor your employees’ absences during the tournament. Any unauthorised absences should be dealt with in the usual way under your disciplinary procedure.
Internet and social media use
It is more than likely that your employees are going to want to keep up to date with tournament on the internet and/or via social media. You should have an internet and social media policy setting out what is and is not appropriate use by your employees in the workplace. Any breaches of the policy should be dealt with in the usual way under your disciplinary procedure.
Discrimination
Your employees may engage in national banter, but be aware of this national banter crossing over the boundaries into race discrimination. You should have an equal opportunities policy and/or anti-harassment and bullying policy. You may want to remind your employees that any harassment and bullying related to an employee’s nationality i.e. derogatory and racist remarks will not be tolerated and will be dealt with in the usual way under your disciplinary procedure.
If you would like further information or assistance relating to any of the issues raised in this article please contact Rebecca McCollum an employment law specialist on 01380 733300, click on this link to visit Rebecca’s profile or email rebecca.mccollum@wansbroughs.com.
