World Cup Fever could lead to workplace discrimination claims

Despite the good intentions of employers who allow their staff to watch the World Cup during work time, they could be laying themselves open to discrimination claims.

“One has to remember that not all staff will be football fans – so what of those employees who may not wish to watch the match – do they get time off too?” says Tony Bourne, specialist employment partner at Glovers solicitors.

“Taking the stereotypical view that men tend to like football more than women it could be construed that men would get time off to watch football but women would not get equal free time off. As such, it could be viewed as sex discrimination or, more likely, indirect sex discrimination."

According to a survey by specialist finance recruiter Nigel Lynn, over two thirds of companies (67%) are planning to let their employees watch World Cup matches in work time. The snapshot survey which questioned 284 companies across the country found that many organisations have decided that it will be better to let people watch the games at work if needed, rather than face an epidemic of “sickies” and “duvet days”.

Commenting on the survey, and on the comments by Mr Bourne, Steve Carter, Managing Director of Nigel Lynn said – “even doing something positive for your employees can have a potentially negative effect these days – it’s becoming a legal minefield. With today’s diverse workforce, it is unlikely just to be just England matches that employees want to watch so where do you draw the line?”

Bourne’s advice would be to allow employees to watch England matches – or matches of an employee’s home country (if not England) but not both and to require employees to make up for lost time by working through lunch hour or extending the working day.