Employers in Guernsey have been warned it’s never been more important that they act with integrity in all aspects of their operation, following a series of high-profile cases in the international media about improper and inappropriate workplace conduct.
The message from Carey Olsen partner Elaine Gray came at a conference on employment law issues hosted by the law firm and the Guernsey Training Agency.
She highlighted how important it was to appreciate that unacceptable workplace conduct not only reflected on the individual employees who conducted themselves badly, but could also reflect systemic issues in organisations, with leaders setting the culture.
Elaine said: “We have seen an increase in requests for advice recently from employers wondering how to deal with employee conduct that is questionable. Intriguingly, we had already seen an increase in claims that had a focus on the integrity of an individual even before the tidal wave of news reports coming out of Hollywood, London and elsewhere and which started making the headlines.”
“The news reports demonstrate a growing willingness on the part of employees to stand up and report failures in integrity and to call upon their employers to ensure that there are appropriate and effective standards in place that work colleagues should comply with.”
“At the same time, organisations need to ensure that staff are treated with integrity when bringing an issue to their attention, for example by taking the complaint seriously and investigating it robustly and via a fair process that doesn’t undermine any of the parties involved.”
The event was attended by representatives from Guernsey businesses and examined the role of integrity in the modern employment relationship with a particular focus on the financial services sector.
Delegates were presented with a fictional scenario following a relatively young trust company finding itself caught up in an online news scandal involving a rogue employee’s increasingly unscrupulous behaviour, including allegations of facilitating tax evasion for one of their foreign clients.
Speakers included Carey Olsen employment partners Elaine Gray and Mark Dunster, counsel Huw Thomas and Carly Parrott, together with Simon Gaudion, Director of Enforcement Division at the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, Vijay Rathour, Head of Digital Forensics at Grant Thornton and Peter Woodward, the former Convenor of the Guernsey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal Service.
Simon Gaudion said: “Keeping the Commission informed from the start of an investigation process is vital, especially if the Bailiwick’s reputation may be brought into question. By all means businesses should carry on with their internal investigation but they shouldn’t do that in isolation.”
“Informing your supervisory contact at the Commission at the earliest opportunity on how you are intending to resolve the issue shows that as a regulated financial institution you are operating in accordance with principle 10 of the GFSC’s Principles of Conduct of Finance Business.”
