Office Christmas parties can be wild affairs, with employees encouraged to let off steam and wind down the year partying with their colleagues. Casualty departments at hospitals are filled to capacity over the festive period, with a constant stream of alcohol-related injury admissions. Many of these patients will have started drinking at their work Christmas party, and continued elsewhere. In some cases however, employees will be injured through no fault of their own while attending the office Christmas party. The actions of a co-worker, or lack of supervision or planning of the event on the part of management, may both be grounds for a successful personal injury compensation claim.
Wherever an office Christmas party takes place, the employer is still responsible for the health and safety of their workers, who, by attending, are acting in the course of their employment. This means that the behaviour of workers must be monitored to some extent, and dangerous activities, dancing on tables for example, actively discouraged. From a legal point of view it is reasonably foreseeable that a person dancing on a table, desk or chair, after consuming a considerable amount of alcohol, will fall off it and injure themselves and / or others. Spilled drinks, broken glass and poor lighting may all create hazards for those attending the party, and it is ultimately the responsibility of management to ensure that they don’t.
The drunken antics of work colleagues may be the cause of others getting injured at the office Christmas party. The employer can be held liable for the actions of individual workers during the course of their employment. This is known as vicarious liability, and in effect means that employers and management need to ensure the no individual or group’s behaviour gets out of hand, to the extent that it is recklessly endangering others. Excessive alcohol consumption should not be encouraged or permitted, given the likelihood that it will lead to problems. Office parties are a great chance to let your hair down and have fun, however it is important to remember you are still in your usual working environment. and the same rules concerning workplace safety do still apply!
>> Find Out About Our No Win No Fee Service
