Major sporting events and workplace issues

Employers may not immediately consider that major sporting events such as the World Cup are likely to impact upon their business, but the following issues can (and in my experience do) arise and require careful consideration by management:

• Increased number of requests for annual leave
• Increased number of requests to work from home
• Increased sickness absence
• Increased web usage during working hours (including perhaps streaming / increased use of social networking sites etc.)
• Prolonged lunch breaks
• Reduced hours
• Lower productivity
• Increased likelihood of employees being under the influence of alcohol during working hours

The above issues, or pre-emption of them, will in turn require the employer to consider (and sometimes review) the following:

• Contractual terms
• Review of existing or imposition of new / temporary workplace policies
• Possible data protection consequences
• Practical and logistical arrangements to incorporate the event so as to cause minimum disruption

Flexibility:

There is no legal obligation on an employer to make allowances for major sporting events. Consequently, an employer is not obliged to take a more lenient approach to requests for annual leave or flexible working. However, temporarily relaxing rules may in fact serve to improve or maintain morale as well as providing the employer with an opportunity to at least control the level of disruption likely to be caused by such events.

To ensure consistency, fairness and that temporary rules are properly followed, employers should consider issuing specific (temporary) policies in advance of such events. Taking care to avoid activities which might be potentially discriminatory or falling foul of Data Protection Rules, the employers’ temporary policies can effectively communicate to the workforce any changes or relaxation of the rules surrounding the areas listed above.

Specific monitoring of internet usage (in the absence of an existing internet monitoring policy) is likely to require an impact assessment under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Care must also be taken when drafting any temporary policies as it is easy for a casually drafted policy to give rise to (albeit unintended) workplace discrimination. For instance, singling out certain national teams for priority in relation to these temporary policies, such as providing added flexibility or home working on game-day of one national team but not another.

Any temporary policy should be, properly considered, carefully drafted and communicated to all staff ahead of any major sporting event. This should then be applied and enforced consistently.

If you require Employment Law advice regarding this or any other issue, contact David Dixey, specialist employment lawyer, on 01376 320456 or dd@holmes-hills.co.uk.