Since it was announced that there will be a general election on 4 July, more staff are talking about politics in the workplace. At times, this is can become quite heated and affect productivity. In the interests of a harmonious working environment and to avoid this having an impact on performance, is there anything employers can do to limit this?

Some employees may have strong opinions on politics and the news of an election on 4 July is likely to bring talk of politics and party promises to the fore.

Over the next five weeks, the various political parties in the UK will be announcing their plans should they form the next government which could lead to debate and disagreements in the workplace that are detrimental to productivity and employee relations.

As such, it is understandable that employers may want to put in place some form of control over this with their staff.

Organisations have the right to set reasonable rules for behaviour in their workplace and rules on political talk and symbols can be included in this.

Examples of this could be canvassing in the workplace for a political party or displaying support for a particular party through a flag, desk sign or accessory.

When putting in place rules around political activity, it's important to treat everyone equally. This means banning talk or symbols in relation to a particular political party would not be reasonable; they should do the same for all parties.

Having a ‘political activity in the workplace’ policy is recommended for this purpose. It can also be used for any repercussions for breaching the policy. 

Where a company has outlined the potential repercussions for breaching their rules on political activity in the workplace, they should be sure to implement these, as failure to do so could indicate to their workforce that these are not rules that matter, and their efforts in setting out these rules would be wasted.  

Any enforcement of the policy should be commensurate to the breach. In the first instance, it is likely that it would be appropriate to have a word with any employee who breached the rule and ask them to stick to the terms of the policy, noting that failure to do so in the future could warrant formal, more serious action.

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