To ensure that the company’s end-of-year party goes off without a hitch

To promote team cohesion and reward your employees for their hard work, you may be thinking of organizing an end-of-year party. For practical reasons, this event can take place outside working hours and outside the company. But be careful, certain incidents (accidents, inappropriate behavior, etc.) can spoil the party, or even engage your liability. Explanations.

With or without alcohol?

Of course, one of the first issues to be addressed is the consumption of alcohol by your employees during at the end-of-year party. Of course, you can ban all alcoholic beverages for reasons related to the safety and health of your employees or at least not make them available. But it is likely that such a measure will seem disproportionate and will not be respected.

So, you may allow moderate alcohol consumption while taking precautions to prevent abuse. As such, the INRS(1) recommends, for example, limiting the quantities of alcohol offered, supplying non-alcoholic beverages, making breathalyzers available to your staff, and establishing a procedure to follow in the event of an employee’s inability to leave with his or her vehicle.

Please note: An employer who does not take all precautions to prevent the risks associated with alcohol consumption may be held liable in the event of an accident. This is the case, for example, when he supplies large quantities of alcohol to employees and a fatal accident occurs at the end of the evening.

Safely...

As is the case within the company during working hours, you must put in place all the necessary measures to ensure the safety of your employees during the end-of-year party. And for good reason, if an accident occurs during the event, it can be considered as an accident at work. In any case, this is what the judges deduced regarding an employee who had received a champagne cork in the eye during a drink organized after work.

... and user-friendliness

In the case of a party that takes place outside the workplace, the internal rules of your company do not, in principle, apply. However, since they are linked to professional life, inappropriate behavior towards you or your employees can be sanctioned.

Indeed, you exercise your management powers during the events you organize. Therefore, you may take disciplinary action against an employee who makes inappropriate gestures, behaves violently or insultingly.

(1) Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité (INRS)