Employers Can't Ban Romantic Relationships Between Employees

Romantic relationships in the workplace should be allowed to run their natural course, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Judge James Rika said love should not be stifled by corporate policies.

He said it is not the role of an employer to monitor the affairs of the heart of its employees.

“Nothing is more degrading than having a third party, an employer, interfere in a romantic relationship.between two consenting adult employees,” he said.

He made the findings in a case in which a former G4S employee challenged his dismissal after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a junior female employee. He called his dismissal unfair.

At the time, Mark Ngugi was the Regional Operations Manager at G4S, a position he held until December 2020 and he earned Sh270,400.

He held this position until December 2, 2020, when G4s unfairly and illegally terminated his contract.

He told the court that on November 13, 2020, his employer gave him a letter to explain why no disciplinary action should be taken against him.

He is said to have influenced the irregular transfer of a guard, Anne Mukami, who was his subordinate, to another mission.

He was also accused of committing sexual acts.comes towards her and engages in borrowing and lending money with her.

Ngugi admitted to having a sexual relationship with Mukami.

Mukami also pleaded no contest, but she was also fired after lying to the company that Ngugi had impregnated her and refused to offer her alimony.

A DNA test was conducted and proved that the child fathered by Mukami was not Ngugi’s.

Ngugi also said he was not in a position to influence his transfer as alleged, to which the judge agreed there was no evidence to support this claim.

Even though the company’s Clause 14 sexual harassment policy suggests that sexual relations are prohibited, the judge said this violates the lovers’ right to privacy.

He said love can flourish even in the most unexpected places and that policies that seek to end workplace romantic relationships are not legally defensible.

“In the progressive jurisdiction, courts have intervened in favor of protecting romantic relationships at work, as long as they do not affect job performance,” the judge said.

Employers, he explained, should be careful when intervening in workplace romantic relationships, as it could amount to an invasion of their employees’ privacy.

In Ngugi’s case, the judge said no valid reason had been presented by the company to justify his dismissal and awarded him Sh3.2 million as compensation for unfair dismissal.

“It is declared that the dismissal was unfair, for want of just cause. The applicant is entitled to compensation for unfair dismissal, equivalent to 12 months’ salary, or Shs. 3,244,800.”

“In the court’s view, there was evidence of a sexual relationship between the two men, but no compelling evidence that the sexual relationship escalated to sexual harassment,” he said.

Rika said employers should let love blossom, as workplace romance can even boost the employer’s business.

He cited Bill and Melinda Gates who met at Microsoft and together rebuilt the world-renowned Microsoft brand, where Bill was CEO and Melinda an employee.

They built the world-renowned Microsoft brand.

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