All the legal reasons you can get sacked after your work Christmas party

With the year coming to a close, offices up and down the country will be getting ready for their work Christmas do.

For some, the idea of spending even more time with the people you work with is an absolute nightmare.

But for others, it's a chance to let your hair down and have a good catch up with colleagues.

Either way, it's obviously important to still have a job by the end of the festive bash.

"The fact that the employer put on a free bar will be no defence for the employee," Owen John, a partner at the south Wales law firm Darwin Gray, told Wales Online.

So, if you still want to be in work next year, you best listen up.

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From getting absolutely s**tfaced to chatting up the girls in HR, make sure you remember that employers can potentially be liable for anything an employee does at the Christmas party - and the employee can be disciplined for any high jinx they get up to.

Employee liability

John explains: "Conduct which takes place at a Christmas party, even if that Christmas party was held off-site, will be treated the same as if it was carried out at the workplace itself.

"In the same way an employer may be ultimately responsible for the actions of its employees at a Christmas party just as it may be responsible for the actions of its employees in the workplace."

I mean, you shouldn't need reminding to not sexually harass someone at work, or anywhere.

Drunken behaviour

We all know that one person who can get a little carried away with a free bar.

"If the employee commits an act of gross misconduct an employer can discipline that employee and, if it's sufficiently serious, potentially dismiss that employee," John said.

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Gross misconduct

Harassment, insubordination, and damage to company property fall into this category.

Sarah Austin of Cardiff and London-based firm Capital Law said: "A lot of these issues arise from dampened inhibitions due to alcohol consumption and it’s important that employers deal with this effectively following company procedures to ensure any disciplinaries or dismissals are made fairly and with just reason as well as protecting employees of the business from the behaviour of other employees.”

Fighting

Another bit of common sense.

"Fighting constitutes gross misconduct, which should be dealt with formally under the company’s disciplinary procedures," Austin said.

"Although fighting will most likely justify dismissal it is imperative that employers carry out as thorough investigation as possible. In recent cases a failure to identify who ‘threw the first punch’ and resulting inconsistent treatment of those involved has led to findings of unfair dismissal.

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"It is important to take pre-emptive action to ensure that employees are aware of their obligations prior to the event.

"That way the employer limits their exposure to any unauthorised conduct which an employee may then go on to commit."

As an employer, if you want to avoid any of the above, you need to do two things.

1) Make sure you haven't hired any a**eholes.

2) Make things crystal clear to your employees.