Ethical workplace
Key issues
Promoting and maintaining an ethical workplace has become a priority for many organisations in recent years. With increasing scrutiny by the UK financial regulatory authorities on workplace culture and requirements across all sectors for greater transparency around remuneration, organisations and senior leadership within them are becoming increasingly accountable for these issues. Key topics we have been assisting clients with include “speak up”, prevention of bribery, pay and remuneration, anti-bullying and harassment, Working Time and National Minimum Wage obligations.
Overview of relevant law and regulation
Risks
Employers who do not successfully promote and maintain an ethical workplace face a variety of risks, both legal and otherwise:
- risk of legal claims – e.g. from employees, contractors and suppliers. Potential for personal liability for certain “speak up” and discrimination claims
- “comply or explain” – failure to comply with or adequately explain a decision not to comply with the UK Corporate Governance Code may result in increased scrutiny by investors holding directors to account
- reputational risks – issues indicative of an unethical workplace are increasingly attracting high-profile media attention
- business risks - risk of low employee engagement, poor culture and high attrition
Our work
Our business ethics offering to our clients includes:
- advice on anti-bribery policies and procedures, and bribery investigations
- developing whistleblowing and speak-up and other associated policies and procedures and advising on their effective implementation
- advising on and carrying out investigations
- delivering practical training on these topics (to boards, senior executive teams, HR professionals and other employees)
Recent work
Examples of work in this area include
- advising on an investigation and next steps in response to a sexual harassment allegation raised by a former employee of a financial services firm against a senior manager, including associated notification and regulatory reference implications
- supporting a client drafting up a new "speak up" policy and procedure, and training all managers and staff in the new policy and the positive cultural impact of promoting speaking up
- assisting a media client in the preparation of its staff Code of Conduct and other key staff policies to set clear guidance for its workforce on expected standards of behaviour
- advising a leading UK technology company on it's global anti-bribery, export control and sanctions compliance programme
- advising managers and corporates on the UK’s Modern Slavery Act and related business human rights issues
- successfully defending a whistleblowing claim in the Employment Tribunal brought against a leading financial services business
- advising a PLC board following allegations of sexual harassment, on both the legal aspects of the matter and potential reputational issues. We were then instructed to provide a series of training sessions to upskill the business on diversity and inclusion
- advising a FTSE 250 business on an anonymous whistleblowing complaint about the conduct of management in certain parts of its business
- advising a major international education group on a range of ABC, AML as well as Iranian sanctions and export control issues impacting its US and UK businesses, including associated investigation and regulatory defence
- assisting numerous other private equity managers on their ABC policies and procedures
Contacts and further reading
Recent Sustainable Business hub articles
