The dilemma of the World Cup 2022. Can you have time off work for the football? How should employers manage the World Cup?

There’s less excitement building this year for the world cup, mainly due to its location and the timing in the football season. Employers must consider what support they show for the event due to the controversy over the history of human rights violations associated with the setting. It is very possible that employees may have strong views on this, and not be supportive of the event. However, the event is going ahead. So we need to be prepared for it, as employers, regardless of whether we agree with its location or timing. What do you need to know? Key Dates: 20th November – 18th December 2022 The first stages are in November, but after that it’s hard to predict whether the Home Nations will still be in the tournament and when they may play. England and Wales might have matches that happen during the working week, depending on the industry. Employers must be mindful that their employees might be connected to different nationalities who support different teams. Issues to think about? How employers manage this event could impact motivation and morale. However, businesses need to run and employees have to appreciate this too. The World Cup needs to be managed accordingly by having a clear company position and approach. Setting this out in advance is vital to avoiding or managing issues. To achieve this, you have to consider what flexibility you are willing to provide – if any, and ensure the employees understand the limits i.e. finish an hour early but employees need to make the time back up the next day. If holding screening in the office/building, ensure you have sufficient plans in place to cover work, and the expectations of the employees around things like drinking alcohol or dress codes. To manage this, you may need to communicate your behaviour expectations. This is the first world cup post covid so there are more home/hybrid workers. Consider how you will manage this: Will you monitor employees? Do you do this already? How rigid are you with home workers? Will this be relaxed or the same? Will you allow them to flex their time as long as the work gets done? What if there’s a need for the employee to be constantly monitoring messages or phones? Possible disciplinary issues: • Suspicious sickness absences conveniently timed on significant World Cup dates – the key here is ensuring proper investigation and not just reacting to hearsay. If an employee is off sick on the days of matches/days after matches – especially if they asked for holiday and had it refused. There may need to be an investigation, which needs to be done from a position of fair-minded perspective. Also, just because someone is off sick doesn’t mean they cannot leave their home. Catching someone in the pub isn’t necessarily grounds for dismissal. Always seek advice before acting. • If they don’t report their absence – this could be unauthorised absence, so may impact on pay and potential disciplinary. But, again, this needs review and investigation. • Misconduct outside of work – some may allow World Cup related activities to affect their performance in the workplace and may need to be handled. Others may take part in activities, but not allow them to interfere with the workplace. Fair judgement must be taken on the performance of those taking part. • Unacceptable Social media posts – any unpleasant or unacceptable comments, even on private accounts, are damaging in many ways. They can impact on relationships with colleagues and/or the company reputation, so need to be dealt with internally. • Attending work under the influence of alcohol – some matches are at 10am or 1pm. Employers need to be clear what is acceptable. If there’s a no alcohol policy during working hours it may be a good idea to reiterate this. Especially if the employees are in customer facing roles or are required to drive. If you provide alcohol on site then be clear they are responsible for their own behaviour and the expectations. Dealing with holiday requests: Holiday requests – they must be dealt with consistently and according to your policy. If you are varying your policy around booking/taking leave then communicate this to the team. We advise that you don’t prioritise requests for people to watch the football, for example stick with your ‘first come first served’ approach otherwise could be discriminatory. If you can allow some flexibility, where possible, this may help to avoid employee issues. There are a few other aspects to consider around potential discrimination issues: Be aware that banter can turn into bullying / harassment / discrimination. What one employee counts as banter might actually bebullying or harassment, particularly if someone is subjected to discriminatory jokes on the basis of race, gender, nationality or sexual identity. We are not asking employers to be the ‘fun police’ but it may be worth reminding employees to not base jokes on nationality etc, as this can cause issues for some employees. If you are offering flexibility to the team over watching the World Cup, think about being consistent about this for all employees and not just the football fans. Also, think about different nationalities and different matches, not just the home nations. Final flag is that race, which is a protected characteristic, includes national origins – which does cover England and Wales so employers need to be aware of this. Even if banter is about football, this could still be classed as relating to the employee’s nationality and be discriminatory.

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