“Does anyone have a provision in their Code of Conduct/Ethics that provides the employer with the flexibility to initiate disciplinary proceedings if conduct by the employee outside work brings the Company into disrepute? If so can you share the wording please?”
Our Code of Conduct provides that ‘We must ensure there can be no misunderstandings between our personal views and those of the Company e.g. we must not use the Company’s letterhead, logos or email system to express personal views or for personal business.’
We have a section in our staff handbook which may be relevant:
INTERNET
All employees are expressly prohibited from publishing in any form any information about the organisation. Specifically, employees should not publish to internet sites or any website chat rooms any information about the organisation, or contribute to any internet based rumours concerning the organisation.
It is an offence under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to make public (in any form) any information about the organisation which may cause market abuse by distorting the market in the shares of the organisation through providing information which gives, or is likely to give, a false or misleading impression by any person who knew or could reasonably be expected to have known that the information was false or misleading.
The penalties for doing so are severe and if you misuse information in this way, you will be dismissed immediately. We will report the offence to the FSA which may result in criminal proceedings, unlimited fines and/or up to seven years’ imprisonment.
One of the examples of ‘Gross Misconduct’ (Dismissable without notice) within the Disciplinary Procedures section of our Employee Handbook is:
“any conduct liabile to bring the Company and/or the employee in his or her capacity as a representative of the Company into disrepute”.