Most people enjoy a tipple at the company Christmas party, but a new survey has found that almost half of companies are risking the safety of their staff by not planning ahead for alcohol fuelled incidents.
Croner, one of the UK’s leading providers of business information, advice and support, is advising employers to carefully consider their responsibility for employees’ wellbeing when planning their festive get-together.
The poll of health & safety managers on Croner’s
www.healthandsafety-centre.net showed that 49% holding a Christmas party have not taken any specific health & safety measures to ensure the safety of their staff.
While one in three are worried about potential drunken incidents such as accidents or violent behaviour, 16% would have the party regardless.
A further third of respondents say they trust employees to behave safely and sensibly, but only 13% of the total say they actually brief employees on their health & safety responsibilities beforehand.
Croner has received a growing number of calls to its business support helplines leading up to the Christmas party season from employers seeking advice on how to ensure the health and safety of merrymaking employees.
Employers are liable for all aspects of employees’ health & safety at company Christmas parties. Under the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 employers have a duty to ensure employees or the public are not harmed by work activity.
Company Christmas parties are deemed work activity, even if the party is held out of office hours or away from company premises. Therefore, employers must assess the risks of a party as they would any other business activity.
Katherine Hunter, health & safety expert at Croner, says: No-one wants to play Scrooge at Christmas, but companies could be setting themselves up for major problems if they don’t have specific health & safety measures in place for their party.
The 49% of firms surveyed who don’t could be in breach of their ’duty of care’ to employees. The company Christmas party traditionally involves alcohol, and inevitably people do get drunk. Most of the time this results in nothing more than a hangover the next day.
However, as alcohol causes us to lose our inhibitions and co-ordination, people are more prone to having an accident or losing their temper. If a member of staff were to fall and injure themselves, or get hurt in a fight, the company is liable and could face compensation claims.
It’s quite alarming that a third of companies think that trusting employees to behave safely and sensibly is enough. While trust and co-operation is an important part of having a successful party, if the worst were to happen the employer would have no policy to fall back on to prove that adequate measures had been taken to prevent harm.
Employers should set out health & safety guidelines which recommend safe drinking levels and accepted standards of behaviour and make employees aware of them ahead of the party.
A company Christmas party is actually a huge risk to businesses. Employers need to be aware that if they provide the booze, they are responsible for their employees’ drunken actions. Their liability does not end until the
employee is sober, so even incidents on the way home, or at home, would be classed as being caused by taking part in a work activity.
Furthermore, employees may still be over the limit the next day, putting them at risk of injury during their working activity, or actually making them unfit for the job. Productivity may suffer due to hangovers and some staff may not even make it in to the office at all.
With the party season underway, employers need to consider the health & safety implications of having a party and put a policy in place to ensure they have taken care to protect the health, safety and well-being of their staff.
Safety is low priority for half of company christmas parties
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