Why you should banish banter from the workplace
‘Banter’ is a word that employers should fear.
Whilst good teams will often thrive on a friendly joke or two between colleagues, there is a real danger that ‘banter’ can be used to mask offensive and potentially discriminatory comments, with the recipient left feeling that to take offence, or complain, would be unreasonable. However if a comment, which is related to a protected characteristic, such as sex or age, has the purpose or effect of violating another employee’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for them, the basic elements of a harassment claim will be satisfied; it’s irrelevant that every other person in the room thought the comment was funny.
More and more employment tribunals are seeing ‘banter’ being relied on as a defence to discrimination claims and in the last year this has reached a record high with such arguments increasing by 45%. In Robson v Clarke’s Mechanical earlier this year, an employment tribunal found that name-calling such as ‘half-dead Dave’ was discriminatory because of age. Likewise, in Finn v British Bung Manufacturing calling a person a “bald c***” was found to be harassment on grounds of sex, notwithstanding that the employee was working in what was described as a “robust” industrial environment.
Inappropriate workplace banter doesn’t just expose employers to the risk of tribunal claims; a culture in which banter is “accepted” is likely to adversely affect productivity and, potentially, staff retention.
The key is to create an appropriate workplace culture and set out clear expectations of employees, regardless of the working environment. Employers must ensure that they have well-drafted equalities policies which all staff are familiar with and receive training on, with regular refreshers. Employees must be assured that if they make complaints, they will be taken seriously. Managers must be instructed to nip any ‘banter’ in the bud, regardless of whether they think it’s funny, or how “innocent” it might appear; no-one is going to be laughing if it ends up with an employment tribunal claim.
How can our employment lawyers help you?
For advice on discrimination in the work place or training to ensure your managers are equipped to deal with it appropriately, get in touch with [email protected] or call 01473 298133 for some initial guidance.
