The short answer is yes!
Take the iconic (well, for HR geeks at least) council swimming pool example, which is often one of the first cases discussed on employment law training courses. In this case a lifeguard employee made lewd comments about a lady who was swimming lengths in the pool to another lifeguard.
The swimmer did not hear the comments but, unbeknown to the lifeguards, another female swimmer taking a rest close by did hear.
The case raises some really interesting questions that can be applied to all workplaces, such as:
- Who can be offended by such comments and raise a complaint and a claim? Just the swimmer? Just females? Anyone who overhears the comment?
- Does the swimmer have a claim even though she didn’t hear the comments?
- Does the lady who overheard the comments have just as strong a case as the swimmer even though the comments weren’t about her?
- Would a male who overheard the comments have a case?
- What should happen to the lifeguards?
- Who might be sued, the individual or the employer?
To find the answers, click on the link below and watch the free 2-minute demo of our 40-minute ‘banter and behaviour in the workplace’ e-learning course, which covers this example specifically. The link also includes details of how to purchase the course.
Banter & Behaviour in the Workplace
This new e-learning course describes the various forms of harassment and discrimination in an easy-to-understand format so organisations can appreciate where the bar is at work between acceptable behaviour and that which is likely to lead to a grievance or successful Tribunal claim.
Clearly the consequences of an employee making sexist, racist or any other discriminatory remarks can be severe for both the individual and the organisation in terms of costs, compensation, negative press etc.
So it is crucial that employers train their employees to try and avoid this. Our 40 minute e-learning course with a quiz to check understanding at the end does just this. Those who pass the quiz receive a certificate, which can be useful evidence at tribunal.
Although it is important for employees to know a little employment law to avoid offending colleagues and any subsequent grievances and tribunal cases, in the 20 years we have been running similar courses face to face we have found that using examples like this to explain the key points is far more effective than droning on about the intricacies of the Equality Act and scaring people into thinking they can’t say anything!.
People seem to learn much more if they are given examples they can relate to and so throughout the course, which was developed with e-aspire, a specialist producer of e-learning courses, this is what we do.
If you would like further details about the course please either contact us or use the above link to the training. If you would like to purchase multiple copies please let us know as discounts are available for bulk purchases e.g. if you wish to train the whole team or management team, which we highly recommend.