The Office Party - a bullet-proof guide for the legally minded

It’s that time of year again. Crosby’s crooning, Santa’s on Amazon 24/7 and Beryl from Accounts is stuffing her Wonderbra. Yes, it’s Office Party Season. When in the spirit of peace and goodwill to all, corporate politics are set-aside – at least for a few short hours. When execs chew the festive fat with the minions, the CFO does the lambada and that bald chap from IT does strange things with balloons. All together now: Oh come let us get wasted!

But to avoid a night of Yuletide japes becoming a New Year nightmare for your legal department, we at Capital Law have drawn up this simple, print-off and keep guide.

Please laminate to protect from spillage.

• Write party invitations carefully. If in doubt avoid the word ‘Christmas’ altogether. Making it mandatory for employees of other faiths to attend a celebration based around a Christian festival, or holding the party on their holy day when they can’t attend, could fall foul of anti-discrimination laws.

• Make a full risk assessment of the party venue. Lock away the photocopiers. That nice PA in Marketing could become a litigious monster if she falls backwards when photographing her bottom. 
  
  
• Ensure there are soft drinks for the teetotallers and suitable dishes for the vegetarians, vegans, lactose intolerants, hypoglycaemics, coeliacs etc etc. Failure to comply could result in a discrimination claim.
  
  
• Circulate an etiquette guide to all partygoers. Highlight and forbid all inappropriate language and behaviour. This can range from a compliment to a colleague on her great cleavage (the subject of a recent £1m out of court settlement) to the Company Secretary getting jiggy with the research department under the fax machine (because no-one wants to see that).
  
  
• Enforce a strict ban on all camera-phones. Snaps of aforementioned jiggy action finding its way onto the likes of facebook or twitter could be a breach of privacy laws under the European Convention of Human Rights.
  
  
• Finally, if mistletoe is an essential party ingredient, issue facemasks to all potential snoggers. This year, a simple kiss on the lips could be the start of your corporate swine-flu epidemic and an avalanche of compensation claims.
  
   

Remember these simple rules and your Head of Legal will love you forever. Of course, it might make your party so boring that your staff will never ask for one again! Which, depending on your point of view, could be something of a result. 

Happy Christmas. Sorry, Holidays!



For further information please contact Paula Morris. T: 029 2047 4401 E: p.morris@capitallaw.co.uk

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