Legal Divide between Employer and Employees for Corporate Events

Many employees look forward with great anticipation to that annual company picnic, Christmas gathering or New Year’s celebration. Whatever the event or occasion, party or pretense, when you mix business with pleasure, unexpected things can and do occur.

On such happy get-togethers, it is therefore a shame to speculate upon any potential legal ramifications. But should an employee break a leg in that three-legged race, or experience an allergic reaction to some party favor, that happy time of employer/employee bonding can go right down those proverbial tubes but pronto.

In this litigious society in which we live, the threat of legal actions due to any injuries that might be incurred during a corporate event can often have the effect of widening an ongoing divide rather than its benign intent of bridging it. This thus can put somewhat of a damper on any hoped for potential improvements in the relationships of employers to their employees.

This is especially true if an employer requires the employee’s attendance at these gatherings. However fun an event may be, if it is a mandatory work related occasion, then any injury suffered during any such affairs technically falls under the category of work related injuries.

But there’s a rub to all of this. With fifty states in the glorious union, there may also be fifty different legal interpretations to a given legal conundrum. So if an employer is sponsoring a given corporate affair, though attendance at it may be classified as “voluntary”, employees may perceive real career benefits to attending, like bolstering their network, and real harm to their livelihood, like missing out on important knowledge about their jobs, to not attending.

Because of these potential liabilities, companies will endeavor to ameliorate them by requiring any employees attending such events as described above to sign off on a written release form. Hence the popular legal expression of “sign your life away”. In the old days, before any hint of practicable legal rights appeared for employees, employers pretty much had their way in all matters legal.

Luckily this has changed much for the better. In the category of the corporate event, the pendulum may have swung a bit more back the other way to favor the employee. With still many other alleged injustices remaining, like discrimination, skyrocketing medical benefits and add your own here _____, score one for the 99%!

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