One of our employees is wearing a Rangers football top in the workplace. We are concerned that this may be upsetting other employees, what should we be doing about this?

Rachel Richardson, Tughans Solicitors, Belfast writes:

The legislation in Northern Ireland governing this issue is the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998. This legislation places obligations on an employer to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment on the grounds of religious belief and/or political opinion. Harassment is defined as any unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. In addition, the Equality Commission’s guidance on “Promoting a Good and Harmonious Working Environment” is extremely helpful in setting out examples of personal emblems which may disrupt a harmonious working environment, including the wearing of football shirts in the workplace.

I would advise that you consider the contents of any Equal Opportunities Policy and/or Dignity at Work Policy in place, which should give examples of discriminatory behaviours and should explain that any form of discrimination is not to be tolerated in the workplace. Also you should check your Disciplinary Policy and procedure; this should set out examples of misconduct, which may include acts of harassment or discrimination against employees, related to religious belief or political opinion. Alternatively, if it does not include such an example, then it may state that the list is not exhaustive, so that this issue could be referred to as a misconduct matter. You may therefore need to consider instigating a disciplinary investigation into the matter with the employee in question.

Due to the political tensions in Northern Ireland, there will be some symbols which, because of their association with one side of the community, could have the effect of making those of a different identity feel uncomfortable. The wearing of a Rangers football shirt, could well fall into this bracket, as it could be seen as conveying a particular political/religious identity to fellow employees in the workplace. They may feel that they are being subjected to a particular viewpoint and feel intimidated and harassed as a result. Importantly, the Equality Commission points out however, that in other circumstances, i.e. where a football shirt is worn at a football match, there would be no issue, as this is of course an appropriate arena in which to wear such clothing. However, the wearing of a football shirt in the workplace may well upset other employees and cause unnecessary tensions.

You should be very mindful of the fact that failure to take any action, could result in other employees raising grievances and/or complaints under any Grievance or Anti-Harassment policy, to the effect that because of their colleague wearing such attire, they feel harassed/intimidated or are being discriminated against on the grounds of religious belief/political opinion. Therefore, you should act quickly to deal with the issue, so that this does not arise.