UK riots – what should employers do?

The recent UK riots have been deeply worrying for everyone. For employers, it gives two main headaches. How do you keep your team safe, particularly if they may be the target of abuse and what do you do if someone is found guilty of rioting? In this blog we look at what you should consider in response to the UK riots.

Given the nature of the UK riots and their emphasis on race, nationality and religion, organisations that have employees who may be perceived as non-white British or Muslim/Jewish may want to take extra precautions. Whilst employers will wish to take care of their teams, it is also worth noting that employers also have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that their workplace is free from discrimination and harassment.

This blog gives you some practical responses to the UK riots.

Ensuring employee safety during the UK riots

Safety in the workplace:
The first thing to do in response to the UK riots is to complete a risk assessment. At the time of writing, the protests have been confined to town and city centres. If you are located in the suburbs or a small town, its unlikely that you are going to be caught up in the protests. It is, however, worth thinking about where your team travel from. They may be located in a higher risk area.

If you find there is some risk, think about whether some increased security could be an option. It is Summer now but as the nights draw in, don’t allow people to walk to dark car parks or to bus stops alone.

Commuting to and from work:
If you work in town/city centres that are likely to attract demonstrations, then you may want to be flexible on commuting times. This could involve home working on known demonstration days or, where that isn’t possible, staggering start and finish times to avoid the protests. One advantage of social media is that these protests are usually well advertised.

Keeping the team informed about riots in your area:
The UK riots are fluid at the moment. Its a good idea to keep looking at social media to see where protests are likely to happen. Clearly you don’t want to venture into scaremongering, but its good to be aware,

Supporting employees at risk

Individual Risk Assessment:
If anyone feels that they are specifically at risk due to their ethnicity, nationality or religion, then it is worth completing a specific individual risk assessment. This could lead to increased home working (or shortened days in the office with the rest of the hours worked at home). Or in some cases, amended duties could be necessary, depending on the role they perform.

Providing support during difficult times:
If you have EAP support, then make sure everyone knows how to access it. Encourage your team to be able to come forwards if they are feeling increased anxiety and stress.

Dealing with potential misconduct

Always investigate allegations
If a member of your team is caught up in the riots and is accused of a crime, then it is important to follow the correct procedures. Firstly investigate in line with your disciplinary policy. It is not enough to rely on any police investigation, although this may be taken into account. As an employer, you need to gather as much information as is needed to come to a reasonable outcome. This is especially so where there is trial by social media. Just because someone is photo’d at a protest, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have done anything wrong. You know what assumptions make…

Taking appropriate action
If the investigation finds that there is a case to answer then a disciplinary hearing should be convened. You may, if the offence is potentially gross misconduct, or you have reputational damage due to negative publicity that has resulted from the incident, suspend the employee on full pay pending disciplinary action.

Where the employee has been arrested, you may want to seek legal advice on how to proceed.

Dealing with workforce conflict

Reinforce what you stand for:
If you have organisational values, its always a good idea to reinforce them, but especially in times like these. Make it known what you stand for and how you value people from all backgrounds.

Give people permission to speak out if they are affected. If there is internal conflict, this should be managed swiftly and decisively but remember to stick to your policies.

Plan for the unexpected

Have a contingency plan
If you did have to close your site, what would you do? Having a contingency plan is always a good idea, particularly if you are an organisation that requires the team to gather in a specific location. For those roles which could be flexibly worked from home, making sure you have the systems in place to do so is always a good idea. For example, having Breathe HR means you can access employee information from any location. That’s got to be better than paper files in an office or not readily accessible spreadsheets right?

Prepare to be flexible
Be prepared to change and adapt based on local information. It could change at very short notice.