Love may make the world go round, but it can bring business operations to a screeching halt if romance spills into the workplace. Barrister Charles Price explains how employers should handle relationships between co-workers.

Ever since Clark Kent wooed Lois Lane in the offices of the ‘Daily Planet’ office, romances have been a topic under the spotlight.

A recent survey by leading employment law advisor Human and Legal Resources (HLR) revealed that nearly 70 percent of people had been involved in an office liaison and while around 30 percent of those had been one-night-stands or flings, 40 percent had ended up in relationships.

It’s surely no coincidence romance is alive and flourishing when Britons spend more time at work on average nearly 44 hours a week in the work place and consequently more time with our workmates than the rest of Europe.

On a steamier note and, with due respect to the guile of the British worker, it was also discovered that nearly a third of those canvassed had managed to have sex at their workplace, with lifts and stairwells the preferred points of passion.

In the litigious US, it comes as no surprise that some firms have introduced ‘love contracts’ actually banning workplace romance. Even in the UK around 20 percent of organisations have policies about relationships. Even local government have alleged to be seduced by the transatlantic approach; Recently, Lancaster City Council was reported by The Daily Mail newspaper to be considering introducing an office romance disclosure clause to its standard employment contract.

‘Love contracts’ is a concept which has proved popular in the US, particularly for senior staff. They are an attempt to get the employer ‘off the hook’ for any potential sexual harassment cases, should a relationship turn sour in the future.

In a document, which admittedly could have been a feature of a work by Orson Wells, the courting couple sign an agreement testifying that their relationship is consensual, and that they understand their employer’s sexual harassment policy. The document then sets out any rules for how the couple will behave while at work. The hope is that your employer would be no longer liable for the conduct of either of the couple if things go wrong.

Last year, The Trades Union Congress were so worried that some employers were trying to copy their counterparts in the United States that they produced a guidance sheet for British employees. The advice sheet correctly warns employees that they do not need to sign such documents or if they do they will have little impact.

Such contracts are of little use in the UK. People at work in the UK have more legal protection for their privacy and rights to association (including the 1998 Human Rights Act), and employers trying to play the chaperoning Aunt will find that they are wasting their time and effort.

In the UK, employees cannot be made to sign away their rights to protection from sexual harassment in this fashion, and the existence of a ‘love contract’ is unlikely to protect the company in a tribunal. Everyone is entitled to a private life, even at work, and if a company forced an employee to sign an agreement restricting workplace relationships, this may fall foul of the Human Rights Act 1998. Likewise, if an employer discriminated against an employee because they were married or in a same sex union, they would be in breach of discrimination law. Neither can an employer dismiss an employee for refusing to sign a ‘love contract’.

If the employee has worked for the company for more than one year, he or she may have grounds for an unfair dismissal claim. It is unlawful for employers to treat women or men less favourably because of their sex. If only one of the couple is being asked to leave because of the affair, he or she may also have grounds for a sex discrimination claim, regardless of how long they have worked for their employer.

There may be situations where companies can reasonable ask couples working together, such as two key-holders at a bank where security is an issue. But generally the message for employers is that office relationships are private unless they affect people’s ability to do the job.

Employers can protect themselves by putting in place policies dealing with equal opportunities and harassment and by making sure they have trained all their staff on the type of behaviour which is, and is not, acceptable in the workplace.