Legal advice: World Cup sickies

It does not seem that four years have passed since the last World Cup. A carnival of football and celebration, but also a time when both employers and employees have to be careful, and if they do not they could very well receive the equivalent of a red card!

For some strange reason, the number of sick days taken by staff seems to go up during the World Cup, and many employers may very well be suspicious about whether an employee is genuinely sick or absent for some other reason.

This does not mean, however, that an employer can assume the employee is not sick and discipline them accordingly. There is a process that the law will normally require an employer to follow before taking certain types of disciplinary action (including dismissal) against an absent employee.

As many employers now pay more than just statutory sick pay, a drastic reduction in salary for days off sick will not be as big an incentive for an employee to turn up to work as it previously has been. To persuade employees to come into work, an employer may, therefore, want to consider being more flexible, for example allowing employees to go home early to catch the big match.

However, if an employer is flexible, it will have to consider which employees will benefit. Only allowing England supporters to go home early may amount to discrimination. An employer should also not assume it will only be men who will be interested in leaving early to watch the football. Accommodating only men will no doubt lead to allegations of discrimination by women. And on the subject of celebrations, an employer needs to be careful if it organises a party to celebrate a team's victory. There are many potential discrimination issues too (sex, race, religion) and an employer may find itself responsible if one of its employees gets drunk at such an event and makes an inappropriate suggestion to another colleague. This even applies to sober employees!

Finally there is the issue of the use of office equipment to follow the World Cup and also what to do with an employee who sneaks in a radio or a hand-held TV to check on the football.

Whether or not an employer has a policy to cover use of its own or other equipment at work, depending on the circumstances, there are set procedures the law will require an employer to follow if it wants to take certain disciplinary action against employees. There are also rules which limit when an employer can monitor what its employees are doing.

With these and other potential pitfalls, perhaps it is a good job the World Cup only comes around every four years.